Maine CITE is offering a free webinar in August, . Here is their description of the webinar:

Webinar: Creating Accessible Content

Date: August 10, 2022
Time: 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. ET

Program Description

While accessibility is very important and can be legally required in many situations, it is often the last thing considered when creating content, if it is considered at all. Accessibility is important for many reasons beyond legal requirements. By making your content fully accessible the information you are sharing can reach more people and it ensures critical information is not missed by readers. When content is fully accessible, it is beneficial to people with vision impairments, learning disabilities, color blindness, and many others.

This training walks participants through the steps of creating accessible content in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Many of these tools and techniques carry over to other platforms, such as Google Docs. The areas addressed in the training include the following: utilizing tools to increase ease of document navigation, creating accessible lists and tables, alt-text/tags for images, and visual presentation.

• Document navigation: Participants will learn how to use built-in features to create accessible headings, making the document easier to navigate for individuals using screen readers.
• Lists and tables: Participants will learn how to make lists and tables in an accessible manner, not just a visual format.
• Visual presentation: Participants will learn about font size, type, color contrast, and slide layout.
• Alt-text/tags: Participants will learn about alt-text/tags and why they are needed. They will then receive step-by-step instruction for creating alt-text/tags for presentations.

As the most popular web content management system (WCMS), WordPress is a regular target for cyber threats. UMS IT has seen an uptick in attempts to login to our WordPress environment, and while these attempts are unsuccessful, the volume of these incidents has an impact on the overall performance of our website.

If you are working off campus and have not already installed the University System VPN, you may do so by following .

If you need assistance setting up the VPN, you can contact the IT Help Desk at:

·¡³¾²¹¾±±ô:Ìýhelp@maine.edu
Phone: 1-800-696-4357
Live chat: 

Digital Communications and UMS IT have resolved the issue regarding the password option for pages, and we will re-implement the VPN requirement for page editing again next week. More information about password protecting individual pages appears below.

As the most popular web content management system (WCMS), WordPress is a regular target for cyber threats. UMS IT has seen an uptick in attempts to login to our WordPress environment, and while these attempts are unsuccessful, the volume of these incidents has an impact on the overall performance of our website.

In an effort to better secure our website from malicious attacks like this, we will be restricting logins to WordPress to computers that are on the UMS network. If you are working on campus, this change will not affect you, and you will be able to access the WordPress editor as you have in the past. If you are working off campus and have not already installed the University System VPN, you will need to do so by .

When will this change occur?

This change will be put into place the morning of June 14.

If you need assistance setting up the VPN, you can contact the IT Help Desk at:

·¡³¾²¹¾±±ô:Ìýhelp@maine.edu
Phone: 1.800.696.4357
Live chat: 

Changes to password protecting a webpage

The way that you set a page to be password protected will change on June 9. Once in place, you will notice the following changes when you are in the dashboard of a 91¸£Àû WordPress website:

1. There is a “Password Protection” column in the Pages and Posts screens on the dashboard. Password protected pages now have an icon in this column. This column may be hidden by unchecking its checkbox using the “screen options” link in the upper right corner of this dashboard view.

2. When you edit a page or post, the “Visibility” options now only show Public and Private (Password option no longer appears here).

3. There is a new box in the right column for “Password Protect WordPress” where you will see the password that was previously set is now listed as “global” role with the password indicated.

To password protect a page once this update is made:

1. Open the page for editing.

2. In the “Password Protect WordPress” box you’ll see “Password protected by 0 role” with an Edit button when the page is truly public.

3. On clicking “Edit” link, the default role is “global” and there’s a box to enter the desired password. Keep the “global” role as the setting for current expected functionality, no need to do this for other logged in roles.

NOTE: there is now a quick way to password protect a page from the dashboard, you can click “Protect” on a page in the pages or posts list and the system will set the page to require a password and will assign a random string of characters as the password. You must open the page editor to view the auto-generated password, so this feature is of limited value.

This month, we call attention to a great resource developed by the University of Maine System:

This month, we call attention to resources and trainings available through the Maine Department of Education’s Maine CITE Program. A main focus of their mission is to help Maine citizens with disabilities increase access to and acquisition of assistive technologies to participate in education.

Here are two examples of webinar training content available through this organization:

Webinar: Creating Accessible Content

May 4, 2022, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
This training walks participants through the steps of creating accessible content in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Many of these tools and techniques carry over to other platforms, such as Google Docs. If you are creating PDFs of your content to publish on the 91¸£Àû and 91¸£Àû Machias websites, that content must be made accessible, and this webinar can help guide you abide by this requirement.

Webinar recording: Accessible Digital Documents – Introduction

Recorded from August 30, 2019
This presentation discusses the issues and methods related to the creation of accessible digital documents, and covers the creation of PDF documents from Microsoft Office and Google Docs.

All university-provided computers have a license for Microsoft Office— is your copy of this software up to date? To find out, open one of your Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Excel or Powerpoint and select the “91¸£Àû Microsoft” menu item from the top drop-down menus.

Your software license should indicate that you are using a “Microsoft 365 Subscription.” If you are using an older version of this software, we recommend you contact University of Maine System IT in order to update your machine. Older versions of this software will not have the latest accessibility features and updates.

For example, Microsoft Word 365 now includes an audio transcript feature—you can upload an audio file or record audio directly to Word, and the software will provide a transcript that identifies different voices in the recording (you will need to update to indicate who is speaking, but search-and-replace can make quick work of that task).

Microsoft Office 365 at the University of Maine System

Recently the University of Maine System licensed a new accessibility tool, GrackleDocs. It is available to everyone from the “Add-ons” menu when editing a Google Doc, Sheet or Slide.

GrackleDocs adds accessibility checking and repair guidance where documents are created. Alongside checking tools is an accessible PDF export feature for Google Workspace documents.

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The Kaltura-hosted playback of this zoom recording offers controls that display either the main video or a side-by-side with the participants shown, we recommend selecting “Single view” for the best experience.

This month, we feature  from the .

Get real: authentically reinforcing diversity, equity and inclusion through your digital marketing

When your institution commits to cultivating an inclusive, diverse community, your communications are both a critical window into your community and a tool to advance your DEI goals. Presenting authentic diversity and priorities around inclusion on the website may yield affinity and engagement among key audiences while demonstrating commitment to equity. .

Interacting and engaging with students using accessible apps from EmTechWIKI

This session introduces participants to a checklist to evaluate the accessibility and privacy/security of emerging technologies. This checklist complements the EmTechWIKI crowdsourced collection of emerging technology tools, tutorials, and resources. The WIKI is a component of the Ìý(#·¡³¾°Õ±ð³¦³ó²Ñ°¿°¿°ä).Ìý.

Inclusive design: thinking beyond accessibility

This session details the importance of having an inclusive mindset in the creation of our digital projects. It explains how Inclusive Design allows for producing positive experiences for a wider audience. Attendees will learn four simple guidelines that they can follow to apply Inclusive Design principles across all project phases including: ux, development and content creation. Attendees will leave with the tools they need to reach a bigger user base while also building towards an accessible and inclusive digital world. .

What does accessibility mean for multimedia?

This session will cover WCAG accessibility requirements for different types of multimedia; captioning/transcript do’s and don’ts; audio descriptions vs extended audio descriptions; sign language interpretation for live events; tips and tricks on how to make your video or live-stream more inclusive. .

How to incorporate human audits into your accessibility workflow and why it matters

Join visually impaired, fully dependent screen reader user, Eric Yarberry, Digital Media Program Manager, Amy Cole, as they share best practices for accessibility audits. Attendees will learn how to utilize their campus community to incorporate live audits using local people who regularly depend on assistive technology or have special (physical or cognitive) needs. .

The new mobile site and native app accessibility testing guidelines

Accessibility is important to all – not everyone using your mobile app, device or wearable will be fully functioning: either because they have a disability or they are simply engaged elsewhere. Gian Wild talks about the things that are essential to avoid when designing mobile apps, devices, and wearables to ensure that everyone can use them. She talks about specific mobile accessibility features: pinch zoom, native screen readers, haptic keyboard, etc, and system accessibility settings: font size, screen rotation, high contrast, etc. .

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