Internal USGS Access Only

Web Document Checklist

This checklist is presented as a simplified way to ensure the quality of USGS WWW documents. All requirements are from the USGS World Wide Web Guidelines which should be read first.

Preparing the document

• Ensure that the document or product meets the USGS Section 508 Accessibility Standards. (WebAIM: Section 508 Checklist)

• Ensure that content has USGS State Representative or equivalent Office Chief approval, this approval may be delegated.

• Use the USGS Visual Identity System web specifications. (May 2014 Note: The USGS Visual Identity is in the process of being superseded. Hopefully new guidelines will be released in the coming months.)

• The following information must be clearly labeled:
  • Provisional data and Draft documents (Draft documents should never be publicly available)
  • Internal-only USGS pages
  • Copyrighted materials require a citation (linked document is very well written)
  • References to information served by non-USGS sources
    • Impartiality, using some reasonable criteria, must be followed when selecting links to outside pages
  
  
• Metadata need not be placed on all USGS WWW pages. However, all USGS Home pages (main) and top level subject pages must employ the following meta name elements:
  • Description
  • Creator (author)
    (USGS standard is "author", but Dublic Core standard is "Creator")
  • <meta name="state" content="Two letter postal code abbrev">
    Use if information is State specific. Multiple states may be listed.
  • Publisher (default is USGS - U.S. Geological Survey)

  Additionally, formal publications require:

  • Abstract
  • Date created (formal publication date)
  • Date revised

  Example:

     <meta name="description" content="Notes on road runner interception">
     <meta name="creator" content="Wiley Coyote">
     <meta name="state" content="CO">
     <meta name="publisher" content="USGS - U.S. Geological Survey">
     <meta name="created" content="1990-08-02">

  Note: A significant metatagging effort by USGS librarians is underway through the Enterprise Web program of the GIO office. This activity includes consistent use of keywords.

  USGS metadata standards borrow heavily from the Dublin Core standards.

• No internal information or links to internal information on public pages. (If your server is set up to detect internal users and provide them internal links on public pages be sure to clearly mark these links.)

  If your Web server is going to serve both public and USGS-only web pages, create a separate top-level directory for all of your internal pages, such as /usgs/.

  For additonal information see the disclaimer, NatWeb Disclaimer regarding Storage of Private or Sensitive Information that was developed with the Geographic Information Office (GIO) Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

• Non-Textural Content

  • Images must have ALT attribute, (possibly set to be empty).
  • Where it make sense to do so, large images should be linked from a thumbnail, with image size in Kb or Mb indicated.
  • Links to files with sizes greater than 100K should be labeled. Ex: (PDF, 324KB). 100K represents a 17 sec wait using the fastest possible modem connection. (May 2014 Note: Most US citizens now have access to Broadband, so the numbers above are more conservative than they need to be. 1MB might be a new reasonable threshold.)

• Footer information must contain:

  • "U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey"
  • link to the official USGS privacy statement
  • link to the official USGS accessibility statement
  • link to the official USGS disclaimer statements
  • last-modified date
  • contact information
  • page url (for those who might print out your pages)
  • Top level pages should link to USA.Gov, with an official icon

  See www.usgs.gov for an example of how to construct a footer.

• Consistent navigation is important: Main index pages for Cost Center and Program Offices should provide direct links to USGS, Water, Biology, Geology, and Geography. All secondary pages should point back to the index. The USGS identifier should have alt text of "Link to USGS Home Page"

• Consider screen sizes; Everything from mobile devices to home computers.

• Total download size for your homepage, including all graphics, should be less than 128K for best performance.

Quality Assuring the document

No single tool can tell you whether your website is accessible (or 508 compliant). A series of tools along with a bit of human judgment are required. At a minimum, the first three tools should be used on each web page, and the fourth is highly recommended.

• Document should pass a spelling check (list of html elements to include in your spell check program to reduce spelling errors).

• All links should be functional.

• Information about the above listed tools (and others) to "check your pages"

  • a href="http://internal.usgs.gov/webguide/508/hisw.html"--> USGS has allowed licensing for Section 508 tools to expire.
  • W3C Evaluation, Repair, and Transformation Tools for Web Content Accessibility
  • Bobby, developed by CAST, helps authors determine if their sites are accessible.
  • W3C HTML validation service or the WDG HTML Validator checks HTML documents for compliance with W3C HTML standards (or use the Unix validation program, validate). Note: Many PC validation tools do not do a complete validation!
  • Lynx, a text-only Web browser, provides the best non-visual view of your web pages, letting you experience visually what a speech or Braille reader would render verbally or tactilely. You can view your pages through lynx online, or by downloading a viewer for Windows, Unix or Macintosh.
  • The Opera Web browser also allows you to view web pages with graphics disabled. (The 2nd button from the left, next to the address bar, toggles graphics)
  • Vischeck allows you to view your web pages as a color-blind person might see them. It has trouble with some graphics.
  • The Wave shows the order in which a page might be presented non-visually, and displays the contents of ALT tags.
  • W3C CSS validator Validates the CSS used in documents.

  Until you are familiar with the idiosyncrasies of browsers and platforms, it is very important to view documents in a variety of browsers and platforms. This will help you to see what view others might have of your pages. Consider lynx, IE, Netscape, Mac vs. PC vs. Unix, and PDAs

  The WWW Toolbox provides links to policy documents you should be familiar with. Test your policy knowledge.

  slide 42

  ---

  "Mastering a Website" online course Created and maintained by Lorna Schmid and David Boldt. Last modified: Thu Mar 9 16:33:09 EST 2006