Harper College will be closed Monday, September 1, in observance of Labor Day.
The Harper College Web Team is conducting a sitewide content audit to help identify and remove old content from the website. This audit covers all web pages and documents (PDF, DOC, XLS, PPT, etc.).
Our goal is to remove as much out-of-date content as possible. This is an important step in helping Harper College comply with WCAG 2.1 AA standards for accessibility by the April 24, 2026 deadline. Removing old content also helps generative AI chatbots deliver more accurate answers when chatbot users ask questions about Harper College.
If you are responsible for content on the Harper College website, you may receive an email from the Web Team that contains a link to a spreadsheet. Here's how the spreadsheet works:
Column A: This is a list of URLs on your site, along with two columns of dropdown menus. Visit each URL in your web browser.
Column B: We ask that you select Reviewed to confirm that you have reviewed that page's content and that the content is accurate.
Column C: Let us know if this page/document should be Retained or Deleted by selecting the appropriate option from the dropdown.
Column D: Let us know the email address of the employee responsible for this page. This will enable us to quickly route follow-up questions for specific pages.
Column E: If you have any questions or notes for the web team about that page/document, enter them in Column E.
After you complete the initial review, the Harper Web Team will delete any files you've flagged for deletion. We will then review the retained files to ensure they comply with a Justice Department rule instituting WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards starting April 24, 2026. If the documents are in compliance, no further action is required. If the documents are not in compliance, the Web Team will follow up with the contact identified on the spreadsheet with next steps.
You have been identified as a content expert for web pages/documents on the Harper College website. This could be because you have submitted web requests in the past, have made changes to pages in this group, have oversight responsibility for this area. If you are not the correct person, please let us know. Feel free to share the link with others in your department and ask them to review any content they may be responsible for.
Deleting as many out-of-date documents as possible will help us on two fronts: Accessibility and Generative AI.
The Web Team must ensure that all documents on the website are compliant with a Justice Department rule instituting WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards for digital communications. The rule takes effect April 24, 2026.
Furthermore, out-of-date documents can get indexed and used to generate false or misleading content about Harper College in generative AI chatbots.
If you notice that a page/document that needs to be retained is out of date, there are two options:
If you need access to update the pages yourself, please submit a web request and let us know what pages you need access to and if you would like training.
If you identify the document as needing to be retained, the Harper Web Team will evaluate the document and determine if it needs to be remediated for accessibility, or if it falls under an exception and can remain as-is. Some PDFs or Word documents are better presented as web pages or web forms (aka Formstack), so the files may need to be converted.
Note: Depending on the size and complexity document, there may be significant costs to document remediation in both staff time and potential freelance remediation fees (if required), so it is important to flag any document that can be removed.
Yes, if you identify PDFs or other documents that do not need to be on the website but you want to save a copy, you can open the file in your web browser and download it to your desktop.
For web pages, in addition to saving the page to your desktop, you can copy the text to a Word doc or take screenshots.
Please also note that routine backups of the website are stored for several years, so any files that are mistakenly deleted can often be recovered.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Patrick Kelly, Web Content Manager, pkelly@harpercollege.edu.