EDU221SampleGoogleSites

__**Some Schools that Use Google Sites**__
 * Wells High School: http://whs.k12wocsd.net/
 * Sebasticook Valley Middle School 7th Grade Social Studies Home Page: https://sites.google.com/site/mrswrightssocialstudies/
 * Kittery Schools: http://www.kitteryschools.com/
 * RSU 68: http://www.sedomocha.org/
 * Winthrop High School: https://sites.google.com/a/winthropschools.org/whs/
 * MSAD 52: http://www.rsu52.us/
 * MSAD 4 every teacher has a Web site: https://sites.google.com/a/sad4.org/academics/instruction/teacherwebsites
 * MSAD 4 district site: http://www.sad4.org/
 * SAD 31: http://www.sau31.org/
 * MSAD 72: http://www.msad72.org/
 * Falmouth Middle School Library: https://sites.google.com/a/falmouthschools.org/falmouth-middle-school-library/
 * Frank Harrison Middle School in Yarmouth: http://hms.yarmouthschools.org/
 * William H. Rowe Middle School in Yarmouth: http://rowe.yarmouthschools.org/
 * Great Salt Bay Community School: https://sites.google.com/a/aos93.org/great-salt-bay-community-school/
 * Jefferson Village School: https://sites.google.com/a/aos93.org/jvs/
 * Winthrop High School: https://sites.google.com/a/winthropschools.org/whs/library
 * Winthrop School District: http://www.winthropschools.org/
 * Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12: http://www.svrsu.org/

3/18/2014 from John E. Brandt jebswebs: accessible and universal web design, development and consultation

Please be aware that your website for your school district *needs to be accessible to people with disabilities.* Sadly, though Google Sites has improved over time, it still produces content that is not accessible to screen readers. This is particularly true for some of the plugin widgets that Google provides and makes so easy to use for the developer. I suggest you run you Google Site through an accessibility checker to see the errors. I also recommend that you boot up VoiceOver on your Mac or iOS device and listen to how your site "appears" to a screen reader user.

Here are some ways to find the errors:

Here is a good accessibility checker http://wave.webaim.org/

Here is the W3C's HTML standards checker: http://validator.w3.org/

Ironically, for web designers who are interested and determined to improve their SEO standings of their websites in Google searches, Google demands that the site meet all W3C coding standards including the accessibility standards of WCAG 2.0. However, their own sites developed in Google Sites and Blogger do not meet these standards. There are no ways for the developer/owner to fix these - they must be fixed by Google as the errors are in the CMS core and templates. Your only choices are demand Google fix them or use a different CMS.

The three most popular CMSs - WordPress, Drupal and Joomla - are highly accessible right "out of the box" and there are very many excellent template/theme frameworks that can be used. Needless to say these are all open source solutions and are constantly being updated by a legion of dedicated developers who are respectful of the needs of the many and value accessibility and usability.

All this said, most of the issues related to access are due to mistakes made by content producers - the folks who post the content. That's simply a matter of training. Please feel free to avail yourselves of the free resources we publish on the Maine CITE Accessible Web Design site http://mainecite.org/awd/ - It's ALL FREE!