Establishing a Web Presence

Creating and maintaining a website is a lot of work. When deciding what content will go on your website, check if that information can already be found on Illinois workNet. This includes the information found in:

• Interactive tools and guides.
  
• Articles.
  
• Videos.
  
• Curated career and educational resources.
  

Use these resources by linking to them or by embedding Illinois workNet widgets into your site. This helps you minimize your website maintenance and avoid duplicating information that can already be found on workNet.

Minimize Development and Maintenance Time

Widgets are great tools that give you big results with minimal effort. Widgets are customizable, interactive tools that are used to incorporate Illinois workNet resources into your website. Use widgets to:

• Minimize Development Time - For example, instead of creating your own tool, like the Event Calendar and Service Finder, you can use widgets and customize them to fit right into your website.
  
• Minimize Maintenance Time - Since information is maintained in Illinois workNet by Illinois workNet staff and partners, you don't have to worry about searching for and maintaining resources.
  

Embedding widgets into your site is easy. Just follow the steps below:

1. Select from a list of widgets.
   
2. Fill out a form to generate a snippet of embed code. Each widget has its own set of customization options you can use to edit the widget's appearance. These can include color, font type, topics, audience, and location (when applicable).
   
3. Copy and paste the embed code into your website. This is a lot like embedding a YouTube video on your site.
   

Read more about the various types of widgets on the Embeddable Widgets page.

Customize Content

Do you have resources that you want on your website, but they are not available through an Illinois workNet widget? Let us know. You can submit a request to publish the information on the Illinois workNet website and jobPrep App. If you are interested in contributing content, submit it to info@illinoisworknet.com.

If you have guidance or tips, please submit the information in the form of an article. We will review and post it, and give you credit, of course. If you have related resources, please provide the link and brief description in the email.

Make Sure all Illinois Residents Can Use Your Site

You should always ensure your site is accessible. In an effort to address these needs on Illinois workNet, we strive to present content based on the following:

• Amendment to the Workforce Rehabilitation Act: Federal "Section 508."
  
• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
  
• Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act.
  

For accessibility testing, we recommend using a variety of tools, including:

• Functional Accessibility Evaluator (FAE) – Analyzes a page or website to check for compliance with the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
• AInspector Sidebar – Firefox extension allowing for quick accessibility checking in your browser.
• Instant Eyedropper – Allows you to determine the web color code for any pixel on your screen. This tool is used in conjunction with other programs that check color contrast accessibility.
  
• Snook's Color Contrast Checker – Allows you enter two colors and check the contrast between them.
• Juicy Studio's Luminosity Contrast Checker – Allows you to analyze the colors of an entire CSS file for color contrast.

For more information on web accessibility standards, visit the Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act (IITAA) and Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) websites.