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Over the next few weeks we’re going to be manually adding alternative text descriptions (alt text) to images in every site, where they aren’t currently found. This will help to make the images more accessible for people using screen reader software, and is part of adhering to provincially required web accessibility standards.

Although this round of updates will be made by Web Services – in the future we will depend on all the site content owners to add alt text to images as they are published.

You may have noticed that some of the Slider Pro slideshow(s) in your site(s) have been replaced with ones that appear slightly different.

The Marketing Web Services team is in the process of replacing the Slider Pro plugin with one called MetaSlider. We’ll be recreating all your sliders using the new plugin, you won’t have to do anything for this to take place.

Please note: if you have one of the two column sliders in your site we’re going to leave those alone for now, as we’ll likely find another solution for updating those in the near future.

When will all the slides be converted?

• Sometime in the Winter … we’re not in a rush to convert them.

Why are we replacing Slider Pro?

• We’ve found that Slider Pro doesn’t quite meet all the web accessibility standards that we’d like it to, (for people who use screen reader software, etc… )
• It also has a lot of customization options that are rarely used, and when they are – can sometimes end up producing sliders that don’t match the college branding standards as much as we’d like.
  • As well – we also have the slider plugin Revolution Slider, which we use for more complex slides with different layouts and interactivity We think it’s unnecessary to have two complex slider plugins available
• It’s not a widely used plugin on the web, and isn’t updated by the developer as frequently as we’d like.

Why are we switching to MetaSlider?

• We’ve found that it better meets the accessibility standards that we’re trying to match.
• It has a simpler interface with fewer options, which will make it easier to work with for basic slider use.
  • We’ve also been able to customize it a bit to hide some of the extra options that we don’t want to make available right now
• It’s the most widely used WordPress slider plugin – and it’s also frequently updated by the developers – so we think there will be better technical support for it in the long run.

How do I use it?

• You’ll find the MetaSlider menu item at the bottom of the WP admin menu.
• There are instructions onscreen in the plugin, and some fairly self explanatory menu items.
• If we get enough feedback that more instructions are required – we’ll add another post an let you know about it.

On February 4th you may have received an automated email to notify you that your WordPress password was reset – yes it is real.

We apologize for the lack of forewarning – the timing of the email notice was unfortunate – though we appreciate that many people called us to confirm that it was real.

Please note – we don’t know of a specific instance where a WordPress password was actually compromised – this is purely precautionary.

We’re aware that the reset link in the email may not be working at this time – which is due to an excess of people attempting to use it all at once. To avoid this issue please use the “Lost Your Password?” link on the login screen for your site.

Going forward we recommended that you *do not* set your WordPress password to be the same as any other password that you use elsewhere.