Visitors to SF State’s various Web sites will encounter a new, uniform look as the university gradually implements its improved web template, according to members of the university’s Web project.

The main page is still under construction and is expected to go live within the next two weeks, said university spokeswoman Ellen Griffin.

Designed to ease navigation across SF State’s patchwork of Web pages, the template is also intended to improve Web access for disabled users, said Clare Ramsaran of the Disability Programs and Resource Center. Administrators of current pages can download and customize the template for their own sites.

“We’ve found that usability and accessibility overlap,” said Ramsaran, DPRC’s information access consultant.

In the case of blind students, special software “reads” the text of a page aloud but can stumble over awkward wording or image-dependant Web sites. Simple menus and well-organized layouts are ideal for the software, but sighted navigators can also benefit from the organization, Ramsaran said.

Designers have created over one million pages under the “www.sfsu.edu” domain since its launch in 1994, and every page must comply with federal accessibility standards by the CSU-mandated deadline of 2012. The template should make it easier for web developers to comply with the standards, according to Griifin and the SFSU Accessible Technology Initiative.

“You had anybody from A to Z creating a Web site,” said Jennifer Burke, the designer hired to create the new template. “There were a lot of mistakes in a lot of places.”

“It’s easier to start anew than to retrofit,” Ramsaran said.

Like “a sandwich with a recipe,” the new template has two “slices” for navigation on the top and bottom and a suggested organization of content in the middle, said Julianne Tolson, director of Web and user services at the Division of Information Technology.

The current main page, utilizing a drop-down menu to access various university Web sites, has been in place since 2002, according to Tolson.

“It’s pretty low tech,” said Perla Murillo, a 21-year-old BECA major. Murillo primarly uses the main page to get to the “mySFSU” service and avoids navigating to other areas.

SF State began planning renovations to its Web offerings in 2006, responding to the 2004 CSU Executive Order 926, according to the Accessible Technology Initiative. The mandate requires the Web at SF State be more accessible to persons with disabilities.

The new visual theme also followed the creation of a new university logo one year ago, present on various university materials like business cards, Griffin said.

Existing pages are not required to utilize the template, but developers are encouraged to adopt the system and help standardize the university’s Web offerings. By law, however, every university site must comply with the standards set out in the initiative, said Griffin.

“It’s better than having the accessibility police come after them,” Tolson said.