ÆGIS Collaborative Project - Aegis Accessible · 2009-03-23 · ÆGIS D5.3.2a-final PU Grant Agreement # 224348 1 Introduction Already at the end of the first month of the project

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

ÆGIS Collaborative Project

224348

Dissemination materials, including leaflets, posters and web site

Deliverable No. D5.3.2a

SubProject No. SP5 SubProject Title Horizontal activities

Workpackage No. W5.3 Workpackage Title Dissemination Activities

Activity No. A5.3.1 Activity Title Dissemination Plan and Material

Authors Karel Van Isacker, Simona Giarratano, Mark Delmartino (EPR); Jan-Paul Leuteritz (FhG/IAO)

Status (F: final; D: draft; RD: revised draft):

F

File Name: ÆGIS D5.3.2a-final.odt

Project start date and duration 01 September 2008, 42 Months

ÆGIS D5.3.2a-final PU Grant Agreement # 224348

Version History table

Version no. Dates and comments

1 26 November; First version prepared by EPR, sent out for comments.

2 13 December 2008; Second version prepared by EPR, sent out for comments.

3 19 December 2008; Third and final version revised by CERTH/HIT.

4 19 December 2008; Final version prepared by EPR.

19 December 2008 EPR ii


Table of ContentsVersion History table............................................................................................................................iiTable of Contents................................................................................................................................iiiList of Figures.....................................................................................................................................ivList of Tables........................................................................................................................................vList of Abbreviations...........................................................................................................................viExecutive Summary...........................................................................................................................vii 1 Introduction......................................................................................................................................1 2 The ÆGIS website............................................................................................................................2

2.1 The aim of the website..............................................................................................................2 2.2 Project logo...............................................................................................................................2 2.3 Availability of the website........................................................................................................3 2.4 Quality criteria..........................................................................................................................5 2.5 Structure of the web site...........................................................................................................7

2.5.1 Basic layout.......................................................................................................................7 2.5.2 Some relevant screenshots................................................................................................8 2.5.3 Structure of contents.......................................................................................................10

2.6 Contents of the website...........................................................................................................11 2.7 Standards compliant................................................................................................................11 2.8 Content management system..................................................................................................11 2.9 Visitors' statistics.....................................................................................................................12

3 Conclusions....................................................................................................................................13References..........................................................................................................................................14

19 December 2008 EPR iii


List of FiguresFigure 1: The ÆGIS project logo.........................................................................................................2Figure 2: Screenshot Google results (24 November 2008)..................................................................3Figure 3: Screenshot Yahoo! results (24 November 2008)..................................................................4Figure 4: Screenshot Yahoo! results (24 November 2008)..................................................................4Figure 5: Screenshot MSN results (24 November 2008)....................................................................5Figure 6: Screenshot of the web site - project overview.......................................................................8Figure 7: Start page..............................................................................................................................9Figure 8: Consortium page...................................................................................................................9Figure 9: Events page.........................................................................................................................10

19 December 2008 EPR iv


List of TablesTable 1: Quality criteria for internal assessment of the project web site..............................................7Table 2: Snapshot of daily visitor numbers in early November 2008 (individual visits, not hits).....12

19 December 2008 EPR v


List of Abbreviations

Abbreviation DefinitionA Activity

CSS Cascading Style Sheets

D Deliverable

SP Subproject

SUN Sun Microsystems

W3C World Wide Web Consortium

WAI-AA Web Accessibility Initiative – Accessibility Level 2

WCAG 1.0 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

WP Workpackage

XHTML Extensible Hypertext Mark-up Language

19 December 2008 EPR vi


Executive Summary

This is the first version of Deliverable “Dissemination materials, including leaflets, posters and web site” of ÆGIS project, which aims to present the overall website set-up of the project and the way it will be monitored and evaluated concerning its effectiveness throughout the project evolution. The web site of ÆGIS project (www.aegis-project.eu) is active since its early beginning (Month 1; September 2008), and is going to be updated on a monthly basis with new entries.

In the forthcoming versions of this Deliverable (5 versions in total), the leaflet and poster design and content will be addressed, together with any other dissemination material that will be created in the course of the project to support the dissemination activities.

The web site together with leaflets and posters constitutes the primary means through which the diffusion of the project aims and outcomes to the public will be achieved.

19 December 2008 EPR vii

http://www.aegis-project.eu/


1 Introduction

Already at the end of the first month of the project (end of September 2008), the ÆGIS website was launched by the project, and has, since then, been gradually updated. This Deliverable outlines the structure and content of the website, also highlighting the accessibility aspects that were considered, and the quality criteria that have been set forward.

As a a next step, this website will be supported by a content management system that will fully respect the accessibility features as were incorporated from the very beginning, while also offering the flexibility of a fully automated content generation engine.

19 December 2008 EPR 1


2 The ÆGIS website

2.1 The aim of the website

Due to their worldwide availability through the internet, websites are an excellent means of dissemination. A website is able to provide information in a quick and easy to find manner, and as a website is based on hypertext-technology, they allow for a more efficient display and retrieval of information than print media.

The project website aims:

1. To provide information about the current status of the project to various stakeholders in the field of accessibility.

2. To receive feedback from stakeholders upon the project’s aims, progress, methods, etc. (see the planned online forum).

3. To offer an easy way to provide the public with all the results of the project. (see the download area), as well as to provide access to the project's dissemination material (electronic format, ppt, pdf, video, etc.).

4. To offer an accessible means through which interested stakeholders can get in contact with the project.

2.2 Project logoThe project logo was established at the set-up of the project proposal, and will be maintained throughout the project duration. The logo reflects on the one hand clearly the establishment of a “quality mark”, while on the other hand associates it with ICT and accessibility. The latter is clearly reflected through the wheelchair symbol, consisting of the capital I (representing a person's upper body and limbs), C (representing the wheelchair) and T (representing a person's lower limbs).

To further clarify the logo to the outside world, the acronym “ÆGIS” is mentioned, together with the full project title “Open Accessibility Everywhere: Groundwork, Infrastructure, Standards” next to it.


Figure 1: The ÆGIS project logo.


2.3 Availability of the websiteThe website has been designed and hosted by FhG/IAO and is available under www.aegis-project.eu. The address was selected in order to emphasize the fact that it is a European project.

The initial launch of the web site has been done in HTML in order to comply with the early launch date (Month 1; September 2008). In a later stage the entire website will be connected with a CMS (Content management System). The web site will be kept online from the end of Month 1 of the project (end of September 2008) until at least one year after the end of the project (Month 42; end of February 20120) by FhG/IAO.

All ÆGIS Partners have started to link to the ÆGIS website, and this will be intensified throughout the project duration. Also, links will be provided through other articles (e.g. http://www.computescotland.com/1786.php) on news portals that will refer to the ÆGIS website. This will as such also improve the website's ranking on search engines. At present, the website ranks 1st or 2nd when looking on the specific term of “AEGIS project” in Google, MSN and Yahoo! search portals.


Figure 2: Screenshot Google results (24 November 2008).

http://www.computescotland.com/1786.php





Figure 3: Screenshot Yahoo! results (24 November 2008).

Figure 4: Screenshot Yahoo! results (24 November 2008).


2.4 Quality criteria

As also reported in D5.3.1a: “Dissemination Plan”, for the website of the ÆGIS project, specific quality criteria1 will be applied to assess the effectiveness of the project website, apart from the statistics that the project will collect from the server side (see section 2.9). These criteria will be assessed by the WP5.3: “Dissemination activities” members on an annual basis, and will enable the assessment of the efficiency of the website dissemination strategy. The outcome will be reported in the future versions of this Deliverable in the documentation corresponding to the internal assessment of the project, that is also to be conducted on an annual basis. The aforementioned quality criteria are depicted in the following table.

Quality criteria

Evaluation

Not sufficient Sufficient Excellent

Content wise

Accuracy:

● Error-free information

1 Based on http://www.evalutech.sreb.org/criteria/web.asp


Figure 5: Screenshot MSN results (24 November 2008).


Quality criteria

Evaluation


● Current information, updated frequently and with recent "last" update

● Objective, balanced presentation of information

● Bias-free viewpoints and images

● Correct use of grammar, spelling, and sentence structure

● Primary outlink (link that takes you to an additional site) content is

relevant, authentic, and appropriate

● Authority (project has the competences to make certain valid

statements)

● Contact information for author(s) (authors of articles should be easily

identifiable with contact details – albeit through form of website)

Appropriateness:

● Concepts and vocabulary relevant to the end-users' abilities

● Interaction compatible with the physical and intellectual maturity of

intended audience

Scope:

● Information of sufficient scope to adequately cover the topic for the

intended audience

● Logical progression of topics within original site (site being evaluated)

and primary outlinks

● Information offered not easily available in other sources

Technical Aspects

Navigation:

● Ready access to site; site not overloaded



Quality criteria

Evaluation


● Images load within reasonable timeframe

● Intuitive icons, menus, and directional symbols that foster independent

use

● Inlinks (links that take you to locations within the original site) that

allow easy navigation throughout the site

● Standard multimedia formats

● Logical options for printing/downloading all or selected text and

graphics

Presentation:

● Site follows good graphic design principles

● Screen displays uncluttered and concise

● Captions, labels, or legends for all visuals

● Legible text and print size appropriate for the intended audience

● Graphics and art functional, not merely decorative

● Information presented through text, motion, still images, and sound

● Information presented in a manner to stimulate imagination and

curiosity

Table 1: Quality criteria for internal assessment of the project web site.

2.5 Structure of the web site

2.5.1 Basic layoutThe basic layout of the website consists of three columns:

1. The upper left column includes the site menu, service functions (sitemap) and links to the European Framework Programme. The site menu is the element that allows for the content related navigation within the website.

2. The lower left column features the latest news, upcoming events, links to related projects,



and logos of w3c standards. (XHTML, CSS, WAI-AA WCAG 1.0)

3. The right column displays the content. Special navigation features such as quick jump navigation and connected headers are provided (see more about these features at chapter 5). After each article, navigation links have been provided. It also holds a java-based feature for changing the font size of the whole page.

2.5.2 Some relevant screenshotsIn the following, some relevant screenshots are provided that show the current versions of some of the more important pages of the website. These will be regularly updated to reflect the progress of the project.


Figure 6: Screenshot of the web site - project overview.



Figure 8: Consortium page.

Figure 7: Start page.


2.5.3 Structure of contentsThe current structure of the content page is as follows:

• About ÆGIS

• Objectives

• Target groups

• News & Events • News archive

• Events to be attended

• Past events

• Relevant events

• Results

• Deliverables

• Case Studies

• Downloads • Consortium • Contact • Sitemap

The structure of the content – holding pages is subject to change to allow for future additions.


Figure 9: Events page.


2.6 Contents of the websiteThe website includes information about concepts, vision, objectives and expected outcomes as well as public documents, deriving from the project work, which will be regularly updated, offering links to other relevant sites and links to partners’ websites. In future, through the web site, demos of the ÆGIS work will be also made available, allowing in this way, the interested parties to experience and comment on them.

In general, the contents of the web site are provided to FhG/IAO the dissemination manager of the project (EPR), while all content undergoes the approval of Sun Microsystems (Technical Manager of the project) and CERTH/HIT (Coordinator of the project) before going online.

2.7 Standards compliantThe website has been designed using valid XHTML 1.0 Strict and valid CSS Level 2.1. It conforms to the standards of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C, http://www.w3.org) by fulfilling Level AA accessibility defined by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0. This applies to the whole approach but especially to the use of CSS.

For the creation of the website, careful attention was paid towards its accessibility. In this respect, the website has been checked successfully for its compliance to accessibility, using a variety of tools (such as the aDesigner 2 application), but also end-users.

In terms of accessibility, apart from the valid HTML and CSS used, the website also features:

● a hidden quick jump navigation which helps users that use e.g. screen readers or do for some other reason use the website without displaying the graphical styles to get a navigation menu at the beginning of each page. This allows for a more time efficient visit to the page. The quick jump navigation leads to main content, service menu, site menu, right column content, site search, European framework and to the footer.

● a visible quick jump navigation at the end of each article.

• Top: Go to top of the page

• Menu: Go to site menu

• Search: Go to site search

• Help: Load help page

• Sitemap: Load sitemap page

● logically connected headers, which allow for an easier navigation through screen readers.

● a JavaScript tool for changing the font size. This works additional to usual browser tools for this purpose (e.g. “ctrl” “+”), so users without Java plugins are not facing an unfair disadvantage.


http://www.w3.org/


2.8 Content management system

The web solution will in a next step (by Month 6; end of February 2009) provide also web content management functionalities through a Content Management System that will provide a fully accessible front-end and will respect the W3C guidelines passing the requirements of at least AA accessibility level.

The CMS will be open and friendly to every user, even those not familiar with ICT technologies, so that content implementation is handled and easily maintained. Administration rights will be given to FhG_IAO, in order to supervise the CMS and secure its sound functioning in terms of content handling, as well as to support online forums that will be embedded in the website as well.

2.9 Visitors' statistics

To better follow the “performance” of the website, FhG/IAO gathers on an ongoing basis statistical data about the website's visits, using Webalizer Version 2.01.

Below is a screenshot of part of the generated reports with information about the web visits in November 2008.

This data gathering will be maintained throughout the project duration, and will also be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the website. Monthly numbers will be reported in future versions of this Deliverable as well.


Table 2: Snapshot of daily visitor numbers in early November 2008 (individual visits, not hits).


3 Conclusions

The accessible project website is online since end of Month 1 (September 2008), and will be monitored by both EPR (dissemination manager of the project) and FhG/IAO (who set it up) in terms of operation, with the assistance of the IP Project Management team, especially as regards the content. In addition, a content management driven version is foreseen for Month 6 (February 2009), which will further support the online presence of the project website.

A number of quality criteria has been also defined, which will allow an internal assessment on an annual basis, in order to ensure a continued high quality of the website.

Having all this in place will ensure that the project's website will be a fully functioning and interactive experience for all visitors.

The next version of this Deliverable will include a description of the ÆGIS leaflets and posters, the website CMS (Content management System), and updated visitors statistics. It will be provided in Month 6 (end of February 2009) as D5.3.2b.



References

1 Annex I-“Description of Work”, ÆGIS project, CN. 224348, 7th Framework Programme, ICT & Ageing, September 8, 2008

2 http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG1AA-Conformance/

3 http://validator.w3.org/

4 http://www.netscouts-ggmbh.de/new/lang-de/zusaetzliches/neuigkeiten.html

5 http://www.evalutech.sreb.org/criteria/web.asp


http://www.evalutech.sreb.org/criteria/web.asp

http://www.netscouts-ggmbh.de/new/lang-de/zusaetzliches/neuigkeiten.html

http://validator.w3.org/

http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG1AA-Conformance/

Documents

ÆGIS Collaborative Project - Aegis Accessible · 2009-03-23 · ÆGIS D5.3.2a-final PU Grant Agreement # 224348 1 Introduction Already at the end of the first month of the project