On April 30, the EERE Web Team presented on standards, social media, and multimedia at the April 2009 Web Coordinators Workshop. During the workshop, we wrote down several questions that we weren't able to answer during the already packed-to-the-brim presentations.

Over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to go through our parking lot questions and answer them here on the blog. And if you have any other questions, or are confused about the answers here, feel free to chime in and comment on these posts!

But, before I begin, I'd like to remind everyone: As we mentioned during the workshop, there are some issues that we do not yet have processes, standards, or even guidelines for. When we don't have hard-and-fast standards for you, we'll try to at least tell you what we're working on and what you should do in the interim.

With that said, let's move on to the questions for this week:


How will YouTube affect where EERE videos will be hosted?
How do we submit new content for the EERE Multimedia site?
What do we do with videos in Windows Media format? [More]

If you attended the Web Coordinators Workshop on April 30, then you had the opportunity to hear firsthand from the EERE Web team about EERE's work in Web standards and guidelines, social media, and multimedia. And if you didn't have the chance to watch in person, you can now read the presentations online!

You can now read all about the April 2009 Web Coordinators Workshop on the Communication Standards Web site. This page includes the presentations, handouts, and group activities from the workshop. It also includes links to all of the standards that were discussed.

During this workshop, we discussed several new standards that were released shortly before the training, some of which you may be interested in:

• Multimedia Standards: New standards and guidelines for audio files, Flash animations, standalone Flash animations, and Videos.


• Text Versions: Instructions on how to write a text version, which is required to make all multimedia files meet the accessibly requirements of Section 508.

If you have any questions about the training or the new standards and guidelines, feel free to leave a comment! [More]

Compliance with Section 508 standards is one of EERE's highest priorities, and coding accessible tables can be one of the trickier parts of this process. The Data Tables page on Communication Standards, which explains how to code accessible data tables, has been updated with information on how to use the tag to add a title to your accessible data tables. [More]

We are always updating our standards to ensure that EERE sites are compliant with section 508 standards. We recently added new language about making complex tables of data accessible. The RedDot Content Management System does not render accessibility fixes for these tables correctly, so data tables that are coded in RedDot should also include an accessibility disclaimer with a link to the Webmaster of your site. See our page on data tables for more information. [More]

Did you know that approximately 54 million Americans are living with some kind of disability? As a government office, EERE has a responsibility to make our Web content as accessible as possible to ALL Americans. It's not just the right thing to do, it's the law. [More]