MONICA OLSSON: Okey dokey. We should be live and recording now. OK. Welcome, everybody. This is Monica Olsson from the State Board. Thank you for attending our first Accessiblity ctcLink Open Forum of the new year, January 10, 2023. Before I hand it over to my co-host Chris Soran at the State Board, as always I'm going to go over a few housekeeping notes so you all know what to expect, and then we'll present our materials that we have prepared for you today. 

So we are recording this session and we do have a professional live captioning providing meaning for meaning captioning today. So if you need that to follow along, you can view captioning by pressing-- you're either going to see a button on the lower part of your Zoom screen that says CC for closed captioning, and you can turn captions on by pressing that button. 

If you don't see that, then you want to go to the three dot ellipses that has the word More associated with it and turn on captioning that way. We do have a chat function. So if you have a question or comment, you are always more than welcome to unmute yourself, raise your hand virtually. 

If those things don't work for you, you can put your comment or question in the chat. Chris and I and others at the State Board do our best to moderate. If we happen to miss you, please ask the second time. And I think that's it for our housekeeping notices. So again, thanks for being here. And Chris, I'll hand it over to you. 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Good morning, everyone. I'm the Application Support Manager here at the State Board. Christopher Soran. Welcome and thanks for coming to another month of Accessibility and ctcLink. Slides here. So we got some updates on HCX, on the enter time page, on online admission application portal, and the terms and definitions, as requested last time, are at the end of the slides. So any acronyms I'm using throughout this, I'll say what it actually is when I go over it and then you can also refer to them in the slide deck at the end. 

MONICA OLSSON: OK, back to me for some initial updates. So in a minute here, you're going to hear from my colleague Vicki Walton who started at the State Board as a full time web accessibility specialist and tester, which means that Vicki uses different types of manual tools assistive technologies to perform accessibility testing of web pages and applications, as well as using some automated tools as well. 

And part of Vicki's role working with me is to collaborate with Chris and his team to do some accessibility testing on ctcLink pages, as well as HCX, the mobile app where you-- [AUDIO OUT] students can access to many of the functions from the CS pillar of ctcLink using HCX app. So we're now live on version 22.4. That version was deployed into production-- you can see the slide says December 17. So right before Christmas time and the new year. 

Both Chris's team and Vicki did testing of that new version before it went into production. Vicki completed accessibility testing December as well. The next few slides are dedicated to what their findings are. Many of you are aware that we are launching a 10 week intensive training program called the Web Accessibility Learning Lab. 

If you don't know about that program yet and you want to learn a little bit more, please use the hyperlink in the slide deck to go and learn more online. I'll put the link in the chat as well. We've extended the application to the 17th of January, which is coming up around the corner. It's very exciting we already have five or six teams who've sent in applications. This is going to be a really great program. Feel free to reach out to me directly if you have questions about that program or the application process. 

And then finally, I know Chris is going to be talking about employee timesheet accessibility issues and the fix a little bit later, but I wanted to mention that the update slide as well that in the near future is going to be partnering with Chris's team to do some accessibility conformance of the fixes that a developer on Chris's team has put into place for some of the accessibility issues for employees using screen reader entering their payable time. I believe that's it for me right now. But I'll put some links to the chat. 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: All right. 

VICKI WALTON: So is this my turn? 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yeah, go ahead. 

VICKI WALTON: Sorry, just checking. So as Monica said, we tested the HCX mobile 22.4 version, and that was completed December 17 and that's also when it went live. And it was open to us December 6 in a PTS test environment. And I have included-- I do a separate report to send internally, but you can also find notes at the link provided at the HCX accessibility issue spreadsheet. And you can click on that link when you get the PowerPoint to look at what we've been looking at. 

Most of what's been tested is what was found by CATO. So I've been sticking with what they found throughout each of these tests. I hope to one day give myself a good overview of all of it, but we're pretty much sticking with what CATO found at that point. Next slide. 

So what has been fixed is on the tiles page, the tiles are now announced as links rather than buttons, and they also show up as links in the elements list in NVDA. NVDA has an option where you can open up an element's list. And for quick navigation, you can navigate by links, buttons, headings, and they are now programmed correctly in the elements list as links. 

Tiles are no longer coded with heading 2's, which was not a correct way to code those tiles, and headings are now in place in the course catalog where you click on More Description where you can get more information and details area. So those have been put in place, which is helpful to navigate when you use the elements list. You can go in and navigate to your headings list instead of having to go through every bit of the content in there, which is a very slow way to navigate. So next slide. 

So we are still having a lot of issues with the course catalog, and especially with VoiceOver. This particular test I was able to go in and quickly navigate with VoiceOver on my iPhone with Safari. Needless to say, the hair that I do have, I'm glad because it was a really frustrating experience when I would put content in the search field or letter by field. If I would move down into the window that would let me choose, it disappeared. And so it was an extremely frustrating experience using VoiceOver on my phone. 

And then that-- and so we're hoping that maybe that might get fixed here because I can't imagine anybody trying to navigate the course catalog with VoiceOver I don't have an Android device at this time, so I wasn't able to test the TalkBack. But at least we're getting a little bit more involved in the testing process by doing a little bit more. And this time I was able to actually navigate with VoiceOver whereas before, I was only able to navigate with NVDA. So that's my part 

MONICA OLSSON: Thank you, Vicki. This is Monica. Just a few points before I hand it back over to Chris. In the chat, I've provided two links. The first link is where you can learn more about the Web Accessibility Learning Lab Training Program. The second link is a web page where you can find and download today's PowerPoint presentation if you'd like to have a copy of that or use it to open up the links that we've mentioned. 

And then in Vicki's presentation, they mentioned CATO and I can't remember if we spelled that acronym out on the slide or not. But CATO stands for the Committee of Accessibility Technology Oversight. And a couple of CATO members, over a year ago, about a year and 1/2 did some accessibility testing on their college staff. And they used screen readers and did some accessibility testing of HCX at that point. 

Found many of the issues that persist today that Vicki is now spending time testing as we move into newer versions. And so just wanted to give that context for everyone on the call today. So we're going to continue to do that testing and work with Chris and nudge the vendor high point as much as possible to work with us to find solutions to the issues that continue. And we are grateful that the three solutions that Vicki presented on earlier were fixed in this version update. OK. Thanks, Chris. 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yeah, you bet. Thanks for testing those. We'll continue to keep on. One of the reported issues in-- not in HCX, but when you're in HCM Human Capital Management, and you're going to enter your time. And this particular issue is-- and one of the biggest pieces there is I have a screenshot of the development that we've done. It's about to be tested and currently being tested. So it's not in production yet. I'm of giving a preview of what's to come. 

So I have a screenshot of the Enter time page. And on that, in the top section, there's the job information, and there's new information on that page, such as the Employee Record, the Hourly Rate, and the Supervisor Name. And that makes a big difference when you're going into the job title combo box. And in this example, there are five duplicated job titles. 

And so trying to figure out which job to enter the correct time for is very difficult if you don't know the additional information, like who the supervisor is that you're submitting to the time associated with that particular job. And so the cool thing that I did when she developed this page or develop these additional pieces on this page is when you go to select something, the combo box reads out the new job information to the screen reader. 

So it's going to go back up and then and read through that Employee Record, Hourly Rate, Supervisor Name information each time you're selecting the different job title in the combo box. So that's going to be a great improvement for anyone that has multiple jobs at the same job title such as adjunct academic employee times 5 in this example. So this would be a great change. And we're currently testing it. If there's any bugs that come up, we'll be fixing those and then getting that out to-- getting that fix out to everybody. 

And then on the next slide, I have an example of a screenshot with just one job. So in that job title section, there isn't a combo box to choose from. This is just me, that's job title. I just got the one, and then it still shows all that additional information on that Enter time page. So we're looking forward to getting that out. 

So that particular information will be helpful whether or not you're using a screen reader. So I'll go back to this slide where you have multiple jobs. So if you did have multiple jobs and you weren't sure which one you were selecting, that will be a value to you. Whether you're using a screen reader or not using a screen. So this would be great for everyone to have. So any questions on that one? 

MONICA OLSSON: Yeah, this is a good time just to pause. 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yeah. 

MONICA OLSSON: So we just talked about HCX testing, the version that we're currently on, and then Chris just talked about the Enter time pages in ctcLink HCM pillar, Human Capital Management. So not HCX. So we're talking about two different environments, and updates and activities going on in two different environments. Any questions or comments? Chris also mentioned something called a combo box. Many of you on the call know that is. If you don't, here is a link to understand what that design pattern means. 

ANDY: This is Andy. I have a question. So on the combo box thing, Christopher. When they select or when they mouse over a particular position, does it change the information or do they have to select it and click it for that to happen? 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: They do need to select the information in order for the new details to appear and get read out to the screen reader. That's a good question. 

ANDY: Thanks. 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yeah. Yeah, the-- 

VICKI WALTON: I have a question 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: --selection triggers the announcement to the screen reader and the changeover on the job info. Yeah, go ahead, Vicki. 

VICKI WALTON: So because the job title is below the information, when a screen reader user activates one of those job titles, does it read out that or do they have to go back up and read that information? 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: It automatically reads out that information without having to manually-- 

VICKI WALTON: Perfect. 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: --the page. That was some development that happened to make that happen. 

VICKI WALTON: Yeah, yeah. Awesome, that's great. Yeah. 

MONICA OLSSON: And, excuse me, I'm sorry. I want to say [INAUDIBLE]. And Vicki, as you start your accessibility testing of the fixes that have been developed, you and I can also talk to about your experience since you've been working diligently on trying to fix this issue. 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yeah, thanks. 

VICKI WALTON: I do want to just make a comment. I went in and navigated a screen like this. And the time where you put in your actual time is not labeled. So nobody would know if they landed on those form fields below the report zero the day and then the box for the report zero. It doesn't have anything in it. There's no label, so they wouldn't know what they're supposed to do with that. Are you aware of that? 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: I was not aware of that. 

MONICA OLSSON: Vicki, this is Monica speaking. My suggestion would be that when you're going-- when you're doing a run through with NVIDIA or JAWS to look at the changes for the job selection, that you can include in your write up that issues with the labeling below that, the rest of the page. And then we can-- my guess would be the next-- step would be to document the issue with Oracle directly. 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yeah, exactly. 

MONICA OLSSON: That's correct, OK? 

VICKI WALTON: Excuse me. I didn't mean to derail it, but I just wasn't sure if you were aware that there are some issues and the date read out is odd. That doesn't even say that-- it just says the date, it doesn't say the day, which I think would be very helpful. So I'll notate all of that when I do my testing. 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yeah. And we can open up lots of service requests Oracle and all those. 

VICKI WALTON: Sure. All right, cool. Thank you. 

MONICA OLSSON: And this might be a recurring thing that as Vicki he tests one thing, other issues are discovered in that process. So we'll make sure that [INAUDIBLE] 

JOSH: And this Josh from SVCTC. Just also, if we can keep in mind, any issues that we report to Oracle, we have to make sure that the testing is done in screen reader mode. They'll just kick it right back to us if we're testing and not screen reader mode and report accessibility violation. 

VICKI WALTON: Thank you for that, Josh. That is a good reminder. 

MONICA OLSSON: Yeah, no problem. 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yeah. We don't like the two modes, but it's their. We do want to make sure we get it fixed and on the right mouse, yeah. Yeah. Greg mentioned labels can be hidden in separate screen readers only, so you don't need to change the visual look. 

VICKI WALTON: [INAUDIBLE]. 

Yeah. I don't care what it looks like in screen reader mode as long as everything's labeled and navigable. headings are all right, and all that, tab indexes are good, all those things. So the online admission application portal or OAAP is made by the company Cass Tech. And Josh has been wonderfully working with them. 

They got about 100 accessibility fixes they got in the queue mainly on the registration account reset pages. And so we just continue to work with them. They're very responsive vendor, and we continue to make changes on that. Do you want to add anything more there, Josh? 

JOSH: Yeah. There is also a couple other things that we came across or Drake found and some were reported by the colleges that aren't necessarily captured in the accessibility fixes that Cass Tech outlined. But since we are doing this work, we'll be able to slip those in and get those fixed along with these as well. So that includes making the Submit buttons at the bottom of the page consistent size. 

Right now, there's like one bigger than the other. And also, like improving the way that they're displaying submission errors. Like if there's required fields that weren't filled out, it's not very clear or they're using color only to indicate that. And so we'd like that to be fixed and we'll get that addressed as well. So some improvements come in coming our way on OAAP. 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Thanks, Josh. And all the open service requests we have with Oracle are currently still on track with everything that's listed on the tail end of the slides. Any changes in the last four weeks since we last met, but there's still some fixes coming and future updates. 

So as always, feel free to submit your ideas such as the addition of all the different terms and acronyms we're using in the slide deck there, and being more thoughtful in talking through those during the meeting. Because I live in the acronym technical world every day, but it's not the same world. PeopleSoft world. So make sure to explain all that, and we'll continue to do that. So we appreciate that feedback and feel free to continue to submit those to us. We'll get those added into the next forum. 

JOSH: Yeah. And we forgot to stop for questions on OAAP. This is Josh again. If there's any questions on the OAAP fixes. All right. 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Thanks. Students have a great experience right on the get go, from applying all the way through graduation. So these slides and these links, they're all up on the ctcLink accessibility web page, as well as all of the image overview documents. We'll continue to post for all the accessibility updates that come when we do the updates to the system and HCM CS finance. Our next one is going to be a PeopleTools upgrade. We're going from 85721 to 8.59 PeopleTools. So that will be our next one we'll be talking about in the coming months. 

MONICA OLSSON: Chris, do you want to maybe explain a little bit what PeopleTools update means versus maybe some of the other updates that we've talked about in previous forums? 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yeah. So PeopleTools is-- there's a set of functionality that is shared throughout the system, the PeopleTools is this base Functionality. So when we're doing updates there, it's going to impact all the way across in portal and Human Capital Management in Canvas Solutions and Finance . So when we're doing these PeopleTools updates, they have these system wide impacts. 

And they're often more background processes and these types of things. The different pillars you use. So if you're doing updates like the last update we did in Campus Solutions image-- not a picture, image 27, those fixes were just in Campus Solutions. Or when we updated the Human Capital Management, image 44, or when we applied the tax updates, those are all specific to those particular-- we call them pillars HCM, Finance, CS portal. And so instead of those individual pillar updates, it's more of a system wide use functionality. 

MONICA OLSSON: Across all the pillars. So that's a good way for people to think about PeopleTools update goes across all pillars. Basically the whole system. 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yeah. The way certain things function is going to change across the system. 

MONICA OLSSON: And then we also-- in these open forums, we'll continue to talk about other-- we refer to them as image updates, but Chris is right. We're not talking about image like camera. And those can be perhaps smaller and more specific to CS pillar or the HCM pillar. Just helping people think through those differences a little bit. Thank you. 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Those are important updates, but don't often come with lots of visual changes to buttons or the way stuff functions. But they're definitely important sometimes background foundational pieces across the system. 

MONICA OLSSON: I think that's good clarity. 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yeah, we're still in the early planning stages on that one, but that's an important one. And oftentimes-- so sometimes with like accessibility fixes, they might come in the PeopleTools updates or they might come-- maybe they'll fix an individual page in HCM, and fix an individual page and finance here. And those will come with images, but sometimes, they're able to fix that system wide functionality in people tools to improve some accessibility features. So there's definitely some stuff coming. 

MONICA OLSSON: Thank you. 

CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yeah. 

MONICA OLSSON: Any comments or questions from our participants? OK. Well, Chris was just about to remind everyone when our next open forum is, so I'll just do that. So our next open forum is Tuesday, February 14. Same Zoom link, same time, 11:00 AM to noon. And as Chris mentioned earlier, feel free if you have comments or questions between today and our next meeting that you'd like to ask us or you'd like us to go over or in more detail the next forum, we're always interested and available to hear from you. 

You can use the submission form on the ctcLink accessibility web page, or you can email us directly as well. Oh, thanks, Sally. Thanks for being here. Oh, and thanks, Paul, for your comment. All right. Well, I'm going to go ahead and stop recording and say goodbye.