The following information is being republished from a SchoolMessenger email received November 29, 2017
Earlier this year, our national survey of K-12 districts found that 49% planned on investing in their websites over the next 1-3 years. If you know you want to improve your website in the coming year, but aren’t sure where to start, here are three suggestions for areas to focus on:
- Make PDF files accessible. The PDF format works well for all types of files, but incorrectly formatted documents can be inaccessible to users who rely on screen readers to view content. Use this helpful guide from the experts at Siteimprove to help reformat your PDF documents.
- Focus on images. Good-looking images can be a powerful storytelling and branding tool. Seek to increase the number of eye-catching images on your site. One idea: Hold a “best photo” contest and have students submit their photos. You might be surprised by the quality of the images submitted!
- Step up website security. Recent school website hacks in the news and changes by how internet browsers treat non-secure websites have brought renewed attention to the subject of website security. Make sure you have an SSL certificate, indicated by the word “Secure” or an image of a padlock in your browser’s address bar. [Note: This has already been done for OCPS’s sites.]