This spring and summer, the UCM Web Team will lead a project to redesign faculty and staff profiles across ohio.edu. The goal is to create a centralized profile system that feeds multiple websites – reducing duplicate profiles, while improving design and functionality. Profile listings will be refreshed with new elements and an updated design to enhance profile content. Departmental listing pages on each of your websites will also be redesigned, elevating their appearance.

An editing freeze will be in place starting May 18, and ending in mid-August, on all profiles to avoid losing content updates as profiles are migrated. In order to make updates ahead of this freeze, submit your profile updates by EOD Friday, May 1. (This is a great time to review headshots and provide new/higher-resolution images, as well! The new image will display as a square. Make sure your image can be cropped to a minimum of 800px by 800 px.)

Updates needed to profiles during the freeze should be submitted to UCM through the Profile Updates Request Form, and requests should be limited to substantive and urgent updates such as the departure of a faculty or staff member that necessitates the removal of a profile or a significant promotion or reassignment.

Additionally, you are welcome to submit less substantive changes to profiles over the summer, such as refreshed photos or additional publications or biography information. Those updates will be incorporated with the launch of the new profile pages in August.

In this move, all student profiles will be eliminated as the new site will be framed as an employee directory. The UCM web team can provide consultation with any Drupal editors that have questions or concerns about their student profiles, and can offer alternative elements to use such as Anchored Spotlights or more simplified listings. Feel free to stop by an Open Lab or schedule a consultation with Shelli Minton if desired.

Profiles in this new website also will have new URLs. Any faculty or staff member who has shared their profile URL on business cards or other materials are encouraged to submit a profile redirect request.

Post-launch, those interested in gaining access to edit profiles in the new system will have the opportunity to go through a new training module in early Fall. In the meantime, the UCM Web Team can make any edits to your profiles.

Please reach out if you have any questions. University leadership will also receive communications about this project and an OHIO Employee News article is planned for March 30, 2026.

UCM is returning to the practice of using Drupal storage for documents linked from the website. We originally moved to SharePoint because of storage limits in Drupal and page load time. These limits are no longer an issue. Moving forward, all documents, with a few exceptions, will be uploaded to Drupal and linked directly in the system. If you have questions about your documents, please attend an open lab or reach out to Shelli Minton. Remember if you need to upload any document to the website, submit the Document Management Form. You can submit multiple documents in the same request using a .zip or compressed file.

The UCM Web Team has redesigned the Explore Tabs web element, bringing updated branding, increased usability and improved accessibility to the design. The Explore Tabs element has updated fonts, a new background color on the active tab, and a revised layout on mobile screen sizes.

As the April 2026 ADA Title II deadline approaches, the focus is on making practical improvements to the digital content we create every day.

The 7 Core Skills of Digital Accessibility; headings, lists, links, tables, color and contrast, images and alt text, and audio and video provide a foundation for creating accessible websites, documents, and Canvas content.

In this session, we’ll preview the new 7 Core Skills course in Canvas and explore how these skills apply in real content across campus. The session will include demonstrations, examples, and time for discussion. We’ll use links and tables as examples to focus on improving navigation, structure, and meaningful relationships.

Date: Thursday, April 30, 2026

Time: 4-5 PM EST

Location: OHIO-DAN Teams channel

Slides and a recording will be available on the OHIO-DAN SharePoint site.

Contact itaccessibility@ohio.edu for more information.