CHRISTOPHER SORAN: All right, we're getting started. MONICA OLSSON: All right, good morning, everybody, and welcome to August edition of Accessibility and ctcLink Open Forum. We have several updates prepared for you today, but it also might be a shorter meeting. So for those of you who might be new, this meeting happens every month and it is recorded in the slide deck and the recording is posted on the SBCTC website for your reference. And this is a space where the State Board folks come with timely and relevant updates around accessibility issues related to ctcLink or HCX, et cetera. Occasionally, attendees will come with questions or comments for discussion as well. My name is Monica Olsson. I am our accessibility policy associate. That hat means many different things. I have some college facing responsibilities and inward agency facing responsibilities. And I co-host these, open these forums with my colleague Chris, who I will hand it over to now. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Good morning, everybody. So I'm Christopher Soran, the application support manager here at the State Board. And we'll get rolling on the slide. I work on the, well, great team of folks and fixing the technical stuff behind the scenes for working with Oracle to get accessibility issues fixed. All right, so agenda today. We got some search prompt pages, some new human capital management updates, some title II, knocked updates as well. So versus the search prompt pages. So we had someone report to us they were having some trouble with the search prompt pages. And what we found was that when you're in the screen reader mode and you're on a page, the Enter key clears out all your filled in fields instead of submitting it and processing it. And that's certainly not how it's supposed to work. So the Workaround is just don't use Chrome or Edge or any Chromium-based browsers. And Oracle has also agreed that it's an issue. They're going to fix it with PeopleTools 8.63. We'll also be requesting a backported fix because we're on PeopleTools 8.61. So it's always nice to get them to agree to it's an issue. So we just got to wait for their development team to deliver on that one. And then another one. Also on Search Prompt pages when you have the screen reader mode on. Once you hit Submit on the page, the CSS shifts fields to the far right. So if you're a visual user, it looks odd. And at the bottom of the screen, we have some screenshots of the-- the screenshot at the bottom left shows the Search Prompt page. Look in screen reader mode, looks fairly standard. And then the Search Prompt page screenshot on the right showing all the fields and such shifted to the right. So we're still working with Oracle in a service request with them. They're still reviewing, and we don't quite have a fix on that one yet, but at least one of the two Search Prompt page issues is going to be fixed. MONICA OLSSON: Chris, can you define Search Prompt page? CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Sure. So any page where you're going to have to type in fields to search for something and then hit Search or Enter, press the Enter button. So there's lots of pages where you're going to type in fields to search for things. MONICA OLSSON: Yep, and then when you hit Enter, the expected result is that the results from your search are yielded. But that is not happening. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Your entries into the fields get cleared out. Yeah, which if you can't see it, is a big problem. So I wonder what the heck happened on the page. MONICA OLSSON: Yeah, so this is a fairly big accessibility bug that our team is documenting with Oracle. And the good news is, though, and I heard Chris say it just a moment ago is that Oracle agrees this is an issue. And they are working to address it and provide us a resolution. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yes, for sure. Yeah, then we definitely don't want this happening. Yeah, and it's nice that there's a workaround. You can just use Firefox, and it won't happen. So yeah, you have an option in place until we get that fixed from Oracle. MONICA OLSSON: Mm-hm. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yeah. And on Saturday, we deployed Human Capital Management Image 52. And so I'm going to go and pull up our image 52 accessibility overview document. And going to have Padmaja to help today. Do you mind talking through there? I will scroll down. PADMAJA VILLALON: Yeah, are you able to hear me OK? Christopher, can you hear me OK? CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yes, sure can. PADMAJA VILLALON: All right, my name is Padmaja, Padma. So as you all must be aware that there is a separate mode for accessibility users, which is screen reader mode. So the fixes that went in this image 52 they are of three kinds. One is where the functionality was working in a standard mode, but it was not working in screen reader mode. Second is where context was added to the form objects. For example, if there is a button because the screen is not seen, the context needs to be given while on that particular object. So that is added in some places. And there are a couple of things that were not accessible at all. So those were added. So those three kinds of things are done. So let's see. The first one is in this Time Summary page the managers view the summary of time for their employees. So there is a link when they are on a particular Employees page, there is a link that takes them to see all the employees to select a different employee. So that return to select employee link was not working only in screen reader mode. If you click, nothing was happening. No action was done. So that is fixed. So that's the first fix. Christopher, if you can scroll down. All right, the second is on the names screen. So here is a grid with 11 columns. And it lists the names. There can be preferred names. Different types of names are listed there. And at the end of that each row there is a button to edit the name. But that button did not have any context. So you can see the NVDA output were just saying Edit button for on that row. So the users had to basically navigate backtrack to see which row they are on. So now they have added more context. So when they are on the button, it will actually read that edit first name, last name. So that is the context is added there. All right, Christopher, can you please scroll to next. Oh, this were just-- scroll further down. Further down, please. All right, that right there. That's fine. Here, the third one is when we submit absence for less than eight hours we have to select partial days first, which is start of the day or all days, et cetera. So prior to this image 52 the partial days value was not available in screen reader mode. So that issue is fixed. And so the partial days will be available above the duration in screen reader mode also. All right, so that's the fix. Next one. Chris, scroll down. Yeah, right there. So this page which is the Direct Deposit page in payroll it has a grid that lists various accounts, direct deposit or check. Different kinds of accounts are listed. And there is a Filter button above that grid that opens a dialog box and allows user to select payment method to filter the results. But in screen reader mode, when they click on that Filter button, it just said button. It did not give forewarning that that button is going to open a dialog. So they have fixed that issue. And now when you click on that button, it will actually say that Filter button opens dialog. So more clarity and context is added there. All right. And lastly, there are two updates where PDFs are made accessible by adding Accessibility tags. So let me explain what those Accessibility tags mean. So when the user who is using standard mode, they can actually see the document. So they can identify what is the section, what are the headers, what are the different parts. So when the PDF is accessed by accessibility user, they don't have that context. So basically the structure of the document if it is not known, then the data is just jumbled up mess. So there were two places where this Accessibility tags are now added. One is 2024 W-2 PDF. It was not accessible. And second is a Paycheck Modeler. Which is both of these are on payroll type tile in employee self-service payroll tile. It has both of these paycheck modeler as well as the 2024 W-2 PDFs. So for both these documents, Accessibility tags like table, header, paragraph, et cetera, are added so that document structure is now properly revealed, making those documents accessible. These are the fixes and updates in image 52. Thank you. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Thank you, Padmaja. MONICA OLSSON: Thank you, Padma. That was a great explanation and some wonderful improvements with this image in the HCM pillar. The document that Chris, you're screen sharing, is that already uploaded on our site or coming later? And I'm sorry if I missed that in email, but I just want folks to know. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: It's already up on the site. MONICA OLSSON: Perfect. Good. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Of course, nice to have some good changes coming in. So I went in Saturday. So you'll see those now when you log in. Any questions? Sounds good. Yeah, getting the tags on the PDFs and the W-2 PDF in the first place it was like a couple year journey. So-- MONICA OLSSON: It was. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: I'm excited to see them. So some updates on some Title II stuff. So Oracle has this quarterly forum where they invite some staff to talk about accessibility stuff, particularly in HCM and PeopleTools, but also adding in some Campus Solutions folks. MONICA OLSSON: From our request I just want to know that SBCTC was advocating for that. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yep. Yeah. So one of the things they reported out at the last meeting was they're reviewing the outstanding bugs listed in their Accessibility Conformance reports for to meet the WCAG 2.1 single A and AA levels. And trying to prioritize any outstanding issues as well as figure out what can and can't be addressed given that April 26 deadline. Can and can't be addressed within that window. Not that they wouldn't address it long-term, but trying to prioritize that work. And then they're also reviewing how to-- their PeopleTools and application teams are reviewing how to mitigate and lessen the impact of Reflow for fluid pages. And so to be fully compliant, you'll be able to zoom in at 400%. All the classic and classic plus pages fail. Even some of the Reflow pages fail when you hit above 175%. So it's still work to be done there. And then they also asked us if we could-- we're welcome to send them prioritized lists of pages if we want to convert it over from classic to fluid. So my question in group was, do you know any pages that you want prioritized for conversion? Yeah. MONICA OLSSON: Is this in any of the pillars? CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yeah. MONICA OLSSON: OK, and I'm wondering if anyone on the call needs more definition of classic versus fluid, and the difference of how those pages perform. And that's OK. But raise your little virtual hand or say something in the chat if you want us to define that more, please. OK, I'm not seeing anything. OK. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: That's OK. So if there's any particular page you think of that isn't working well with your screen reader, or if anybody's said to you, hey, this page doesn't work well for Dragon, ZoomText, whatever tool they got, whatever system tool that might not work well on a page, let us know. Oftentimes giving them those classic, classic+ pages just a little more outdated in how it works. MONICA OLSSON: For forms. Yeah. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Forms versus the fluid. Like for example, if you try like with the Reflow that we talked about, you try and zoom in on a classic and classic+ page. And what you're going to get is the side to side scroll bars and elements in the page not fitting within the window. In particular, one recent one was the Make a Payment page. We converted that over from classic to fluid. So that students, when they're making payments like on their phone, that actually can see all the fields on the page. And with the Reflow it conforms to fit within the viewing window. So you don't have those side to side scroll bars. So if you've ever been on your phone or your iPad and you see the side to side scroll bars, you're probably on a classic page. That's one giveaway. MONICA OLSSON: Yeah, it's like the experience you might have, another way of thinking about folks. If you're like, man, I'm not quite sure what he's saying. Is when if you're looking at a PDF document and you're like you're zooming in on the PDF document or you're on your mobile and you are using your fingers to zoom in that PDF document. PDF by nature is static. And so it's not going to Reflow to conform to the size of whatever screen you're on. So if you're going to end up scrolling up, down, left, right to access that content if you're making the document larger. So if you're experiencing that on a particular page in ctcLink whatever pillar you're in, likely that's a classic designed page. And Chris and his team is really pushing for as much conversion to fluid as possible because it's a better user experience for anybody, regardless of disability. And also it's better for accessibility. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: So yeah, if you think of a page, just email and let me know. And one other update they had at the last form was their HCM team is starting to review requirements and look into the possibility of Self Service capabilities for accommodation for employees. I don't know exactly what their plan is around that, but they were asking them is that a feature that would be helpful? So I wanted to bring it to this group and get you all, get your thoughts. So I could pass that feedback onto them. So this is for employees and staff, not for students. MONICA OLSSON: Yeah, so, Chris, my clarifying question would be and maybe we just need more information from Oracle before colleges would know how to provide feedback if it's something that they would want or not. Is this within self service for employees specifically? Is it features to support their process of requesting accommodations as an employee of that institution? Or is it accommodation specific to the application? You know what I mean? CHRISTOPHER SORAN: I think my understanding of the way they were asking was that it would be like accommodations for employment like-- MONICA OLSSON: For employment. Yeah. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yeah. MONICA OLSSON: Yeah, that's interesting because-- oh, Daily says, would it be a simple request form or a dot dot? I don't know. That's a good question that we can ask. I'd be really curious to see some of their mock up ideas because I know just from experience working at different colleges as a disabled woman using accommodations that the process is different. Wherever you're working, every HR office has their own request form they're using. They have their own intake process. It's not necessarily uniform across our system. So it's an interesting idea to me that there could be some uniform request form available out there to employees that they could access. Within the application, they don't necessarily have to get a paper copy or whatever from HR. So I'm interested to see where this idea could go, assuming they build it accessibly. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Sure, of course. [LAUGHTER] MONICA OLSSON: What do you folks think about that? No thoughts or questions. We have a question from-- CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Sure. MONICA OLSSON: --Daily we will take back to them. This might be a better question honestly, Chris, now that I'm thinking about it out loud for our HR Council people. Because they're the ones that ultimately own the accommodation request process within HR for employees. So asking them what they think we might get more responses than most of the folks on this call are working directly with students or their Accessibility coordinator. So they're not handling employee accommodations at all. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Sure. Absolutely. Yeah, makes sense. MONICA OLSSON: I'll write that down. I can take that on because I have a little link to that group. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: OK, that's right. MONICA OLSSON: OK. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yeah, thanks for your comment, Daily. All right, slows down. Sweet. MONICA OLSSON: This is just a brief update. So Okta is, of course, our MFA-- Multi-Factor Authentication-- tool. Everyone has probably experienced this product in some way somehow when logging into ctcLink. And so there's various pieces of how this operates. There's the sign in widget, there's Okta verify mobile, there's the end user dashboard. And SBCTC folks have been in conversation with Okta around all of these components and their level of accessibility and usability for a number of years now. And Okta has recently updated and republished their VPATs for their products. So they have a 2025 date on those. They've done some work with third-party DQ for auditing and tracking accessibility bugs. And now in probably more of the September time frame, our very own Josh and Vicki are going to do some accessibility testing of those Okta updates with a focus on Okta verify, I believe. Josh, you're on the call. Is there anything you want to add or correct from this slide? Is Josh on the call? JOSH: That's very right. That's right. I have nothing to add. MONICA OLSSON: OK. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Sounds good. That was all the topics for today. As always, if you have anything you want us to add on to the agenda, feel free to let us know. And the image overview document that I showed from the HCM 52 we deployed over the weekend. That's up on the Accessibility web page. You can go check that out. MONICA OLSSON: And our next open forum is going to be September 9, Tuesday 11:00 to noon. Same Zoom link. And we always send out reminders the Monday before. OK. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Yeah. MONICA OLSSON: Well, thanks everyone. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: Appreciate your time. Thanks for coming. PADMAJA VILLALON: Thank you. CHRISTOPHER SORAN: See you later. MONICA OLSSON: Thanks, Padma and Josh. Bye. PADMAJA VILLALON: Bye. JOSH: Bye.