I am an editor for the student newspaper at Swansea University – The Waterfront. Along with 26 other editors, we spend a lot of time and effort putting together a fortnightly newspaper, a monthly magazine and a regularly updated website – which James and I built from scratch last summer. We work long hours and do it for free. So, imagine how we feel when the Student Union’s part time Web Editor plagiarises our content and uses it as his own. This has happened several times now and I’ve had enough.

Back in mid March, during the Student Union Sabbatical Elections, a group of editors worked throughout the night. The day started at 3pm and ended at around 7am the next day. In this time, we wrote 46 blog entries, more than 9 articles, kept a live commentary of the events, produced 11 podcasts and kept a photo blog. In addition to this, the editors put together an election special newspaper, printed it and distributed it around campus. A few hours later, when the part time web editor arrived for the day, an article written by Deputy Editor Tim Sculthorpe appeared on the SU website. There was no credit to either the Waterfront or Tim.

Last week was the 2007 Summer Ball. A number of editors attended the event to review the bands and take photos for the Waterfront website. Guess our surprise when the photos we posted to our PhotoBlog appeared on the Student Union website with yet again, no credit to the Waterfront or the photographer.

Now, either the SU web editor doesn’t understand that taking content produced by somebody else and passing it off as your own is plagiarism, or someone higher up in SU management doesn’t. For a university student union, that is extremely disturbing. We get told all of the time how plagiarism is wrong and the consequences of doing it are severe. However, the SU keeps doing it – setting a bad example to students.

Doing something like this reflects very badly on the paper and the union. As a further point, why are students going to continue contributing to the Waterfront when their efforts are stolen by the SU with no credit to their work?

This year we have applied to the Guardian Student Media Awards. This jeopardises any chance we might have of even getting a nomination. It looks as if we are the ones plagiarising the SU web editor.

So, what happens now? Well, firstly, any images used on the Waterfront website will now carry the Waterfront logo as a watermark. Secondly, the next time this happens (and I have no doubts that there will be a next time), I will walk away and resign from the paper.

The first attempt at raising the motion was cancelled due to some last minute problems, but this evening it was heard at the SGM. After a bit of debate about a badly worded point (despite numerous people proof reading it, I’d made a mistake, doh!), the motion was passed.

This isn’t the end of my aim of making the sites more accessible, this motion will be followed up by an article in Monday’s Waterfront newspaper – written by Charlie Duff and supported by Discovery – the disability support charity operating in the university. I’ll post more about that as soon as it is released.

I’ve copied in the motion text below for anyone who is interested.

The Union Notes that:

1. There are 2 million people with sight problems in the UK (Source: RNIB 2007)
2. Sight problems and motor problems can both cause difficulties in using websites
3. The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 makes it a legal requirement for all websites to be accessible by October 1999
4. The Internet standards body – W3C – runs a website accessibility initiative that provides 3 levels of accessibility – A, AA and AAA.
5. The RNIB recommends that websites should aim for the ‘AA’ standard
6. Many university departments make use of websites such as Blackboard for providing course documents and submitting assignments

The Union Believes that:

1. The Students’ Union website at www.swansea-union.co.uk does not comply with any of the three levels of accessibility
2. Other SU websites such as the Summer Ball 2007 website also do not comply with these standards
3. Swansea University websites such as Blackboard and Voyager do not comply with these standards
4. Failing to comply with these standards makes university life difficult for disabled students
5. Owners of websites that do not comply are open to legal action under the DDA

The Union Resolves to:

1. Ensure its website(s) comply with all UK laws regarding Website Accessibility to at least ‘AA’ standard
2. Lobby the University to maintain and improve the accessibility of its website
3. Lobby the University to ensure services such as Voyager, Blackboard and the Intranet comply with a minimum of ‘AA’ standard

On another note, the end of term is finally here. I am at home in Abergavenny for a week or so before heading back to the fun that is Swansea and a 100 page dissertation. 6 weeks before it is due in – oops. I really need to crack on with it.

For a bit of light entertainment, check out NewsBiscuit.com – it filled a few hours of procrastination earlier.

That’s all for now!

How easy is it to make a website accessible?  Well, mainly it just involves using some common sense.  If you build a website that complies with the latest standards then you are part way there already.  Other simple rules include not using javascript for navigation, don’t use images as text and if you absolutely must have flash animations, make sure you make use of the in-built accessibility options.

Of course, that isn’t all.  There are other things you can do to make a site accessible – such as having different contrast themes to help people see your text and many others.  Website accessibility is such a huge topic that it is impossible to know everything you can do.  It is a continual learning process – I am always finding new things I can do to make better websites.

This all seems like a lot of effort, why should I bother with it?  Well, for starters, it is the law.  It is illegal in both the UK and the US to produce a website that is not accessible.  By not doing it, you open yourself to possible legal action from someone who wants to use a website but can’t.  But that isn’t the only reason.  An accessible website is easier to use for everyone, not just the disabled.

Now I’ve told you about accessibility and why it is important, I think its time to let you know why I’ve taken the time to explain it.

At Swansea University, there are a number of websites that are used by students every day.  For example, Blackboard – our virtual learning environment website – provides access to course information, documents and assignments; Voyager is used to search for books in the library; and the Students’ Union site provides SU news and details of SU events.

Are any of these websites accessible?  No.  How is a disabled student supposed to get access to assignments on Blackboard when it is completely inaccessible?

Tomorrow (Thursday) there is a motion in the Student General Meeting to lobby the University and Students’ Union to improve the accessibility of their websites.  Please come along to Faraday A at 6pm to support this motion and show the university that it is important to ensure their sites are useable by everyone.

Thank you

The evening started in controversy as certain (as yet unexplained) issues arose regarding the people counting the votes. After a hastily arranged emergency meeting – attended by large numbers of security staff, the counting went ahead as planned except for a small delay.

There was one change however; a number of counters were barred from the counting room, reducing the number of people available. Coupling that with extended validity checks on every count and the fact that turn out was up by a 1/3; the length of time before the results were announced was drastically extended.

After several hours (5) of checking blog entries, the first result for Education officer came in at just after midnight. This was followed by Women’s officer about 45 minutes later. By this point we would usually be expecting all but Treasurer and President to be announced, but no, still four to go.

Despite the long gaps between results, there was still a lot to do such as proof reading blogs, fixing mistakes in the releases, making podcasts and visiting the counting room to see how long we had left before the next result. There was one hour where James did nothing but make podcasts non stop.

Finally, after a total of 10 and a half hours, the final result came through. Owen Morgan – the current president had managed to retain his position to stay on for a second term. This result meant that we could put the finishing touches onto the printed paper. After what seemed like ages, it was all over at about 8am.

I have since spent the rest of Friday trying to catch up with sleep and am now watching the rugby. Definitely a good night – albeit very long. The website worked exactly as planned and we have a good batch of content. A total of 46 blog entries, 5 photo blogs and 14 podcasts were made throughout the evening along with our live text commentary that operated all night.

Thanks to Lianne, Bryan, Kim, Charlie, Kate, Dawn, Tim, Dan, Chris, Holly and Nia who all contributed to the blog throughout the night, as well as Pete and Tom who manned the live commentary for the 10 hours.

Also, I should mention the Xtreme Radio team who were up with us all night with their coverage of the election. Despite the long night, they kept on going and provided much needed entertainment for the Waterfront team – and also put up with the Waterfront storming the station for a few minutes early in the morning.

Will next year be any better? We will have to wait and see.

For anyone who’s been listening into the election show, you will have just heard the Waterfront team take over the radio. Will Xtreme be taking over the Waterfront by the end of the night? Only time will tell.

President counting is still ongoing. Get the result here at Waterfront Online and Xtreme Radio.

We are hoping the result for International Editor will be out soon. Keep your eyes peeled, we will be here until the end of the night… or, as is looking more and more likely, early morning.