USING YOUR PROGRAM WEBSITE FOR

MORE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WEBINAR

~ FEBRUARY 23, 2010 ~



LIZ PERSAUD: Good morning. This is Liz with the

Pass It On Center. And welcome.

Today's webinar is going to be Using Your Program

Website for More Effective Communication.

And before I get started, I want to do a few Pass

It On Center webinar housekeeping tips that we have. If

none of y'all have been on the webinar system before, we

have a couple of neat tools that y'all can use throughout

the webinar.

First of all, on the right-hand side of your screen

it says "Public Chat." And you can see I did a sound check

earlier. And Kimberly, our wonderful transcriptionist, and

Martha Rust from TFL said, "Yes. Loud and clear, and

sounds good to me." That's the chat box that shows the

public-chat area.

And right underneath it there's a white box, a

blank box, and that's where you will actually type in your

comments or your questions throughout the webinar if you

have any. Feel free to do that at any time.

If you have a microphone and you would like to

actually speak into the microphone and ask a question or

give a comment, what you would do is you would hold down

the "Control" key on your keyboard, and you would speak.

Be sure, though, when you're finished, to let go of the

"Control" key because what that does is actually release it

for me to speak or for somebody else to speak as well too.

And I'll actually keep an eye out throughout the

webinar to see if anyone has their hand raised. A hand

raised would let me know that you have a question or that

you would like to grab the microphone.

You can also instant message to anyone in the

participant list during the webinar. And what you would do

is right click on someone's name, and you would send them a

private-chat message.

Over on the left-hand side there is a menu that

says "File," "Action," "View," things of that nature. What

you would do is go to "Options," and there is an

accessibility function. So if you're using a screen reader

or would like to conform the webinar platform to your

specific needs, you can click on "Options" and

"Accessibility," and that would be how you would go about

getting that done.

I do want to let you know that, as with all of our

Pass It On Center webinars, that this is going to be

recorded and transcribed. And we will be posting it up on

the Pass It On Center website under the "Webinar" section,

usually in about three weeks.

So if you have any of your program associates or

anyone that you just want to let them know that we do have

archives available, that they can jump onto the Pass It On

Center website at any time shortly after this webinar is

being broadcast live today, in about three weeks, and they

can get the recording and get all the information to use

for their purposes.

So with all of that being said -- I think those are

all the housekeeping rules. With that being said, we'll

just jump on into the webinar and get going.

So again, thank you guys so much for being on

today. I really appreciate it.

This webinar is called "Using Your Program Website

For More Effective Communication."

If some of you have been on the Pass It On Center

webinars regularly, you would have remembered that last

year February I, along with some other folks with reuse

programs across the country, did a webinar focused on

marketing your reuse program.

This kind of falls along the lines of that

marketing strand that we're really trying to get more

information out there. And basically we just want to help

all of y'all as you've got your programs out there really

be able to get your program's mission and your objectives

and aspects of your program out in the community to those

that you serve and to your partners as well too.

So this webinar will be really focused specifically

on using your website and making sure that it's able to get

your program mission across well to visitors that visit.

So I have a little agenda up here. And these are

some things that I'll be addressing throughout this webinar

just so y'all have an idea of where we're headed today.

So the first thing we'll be going over is website

purpose, website organization. And what that actually

means is how to organize your website; what really looks

best; making sure that you don't have too much happening on

your home page; making sure it coincides with your

secondary pages on your website as well too.

Website design. Just some really simple tools and

tips that we've found to work for us and for other programs

across the country as well too.

A usability study. A year ago Pass It On Center

did a usability study to really help us improve our website

and to really make it what y'all want, our visitors, our

customers that we serve, make it friendly and more

accessible to you.

So what I'm going to be doing is sharing some of

the tools that we used and how that really benefited us and

sharing those resources. So if y'all are indeed looking to

revamp your website or reorganize or anything of that

nature with your website, this would be a great way to lay

that foundation.

We have some examples from reuse programs across

the country, your reuse partners that have really taken a

specific feature or something great that needs to be well

addressed on a website, and they've really gone above and

beyond and made it something really cool, just something

really visible to visitors as they visit their website.

So I actually have some examples and screen shots

of different aspects of websites from your reuse partners

across the country that I'll be showing so y'all can have

that concrete example of what to focus on and how they do

it so well to follow their lead.

We'll have some helpful tips, some ideas, and also

something that we call the Webbies. And we'll actually get

into that, but it's the green carpet. And I'll save that

for our little treat, our little surprise towards the end

of the webinar.

So putting the pieces together. The truth is is

that all of y'all have the information already. You guys

are experts in obviously what your program is doing. Each

of the aspects to your website, the ideas, the activities

that your program is doing that you want up on your

website -- you have all of the information already. You

may not feel like you do, but you really do.

We're just here to help you put those puzzle pieces

together. So I really want this webinar -- what my focus

is is for this webinar to be kind of that working

environment for you, if you will. Grab some paper. Grab a

pencil. And let's start planning.

As I'm going through this and I'm giving y'all

examples and tips and strategies and solutions, jot down

some ideas and some notes that really work for you. And

this could be a great, great first step in revamping or

reorganizing your website, if that's indeed what y'all are

interested in doing. So grab that pencil or that pen, and

let's start planning.

I created a worksheet that will help you to work on

identifying your target audiences of who is coming to your

website, because that's one of the very first steps that

you need to conquer when designing a website. And it's the

idea of what we like to say at Pass It On Center:

Beginning with the end in mind.

What's your ultimate goal? What's your ultimate

mission? Who are the people that you're ultimately talking

to?

That worksheet is in the knowledge base on the Pass

It On Center website, passitoncenter.org/content. It's

posted under the "Marketing" module, and it also appears

under the "New to the Knowledge Base" section.

So when you log onto the Pass It On Center website

and you go to the knowledge base, as soon as you pull up

the home page of the knowledge base, there's a section that

says "New to the knowledge base." And any new items,

articles, attachments, worksheets such as this next one

that I'll be showing you in the next few moments will

appear in the "New to the Knowledge Base" section.

So you can feel free to go and grab that now, or

you can jot some of this information down. And as you're

planning later on in the future after this webinar, you can

grab that worksheet and start working from there.

And this is just a screen shot of what the

worksheet looks like. As I said, it is in the knowledge

base. This is focusing more on the website purpose, and

it's focused on identifying your target audiences.

So on the left-hand side it has a box for

prioritizing. In the middle where it says "Target

Audience" you would actually list: Is that reuse users?

Reuse equipment? AT DME users? Customers? Is it our

stakeholders? Is it our advisory council members? Is it

people getting equipment? Is it people donating equipment?

You would list your target audience that way.

And then over on the right-hand side under the

column that says "Message" is where you would actually jot

down the message that you are trying to get across to that

audience.

So the next couple of slides that I have that focus

on website purpose and organization, on design, I actually

have a lot of questions up on the slides. And that's

really because I'll be asking the questions, but I want

y'all to ask yourselves the question as well too.

So, for example: Who are your target audiences?

When you're working with that worksheet, again, think about

who the people are that you're focusing on. And then it's

important to number them according to how you would

prioritize their needs for the website.

And what that will actually do is help you to

organize your home page and your secondary pages in a way

that flows better as your target audience is entering your

website.

Here at the bottom it says "Reuse." And the reason

why I put that up there is because it's for our reuse

program. So I want y'all to think not just in terms of the

people that you serve, but think bigger.

Think of your volunteers. Think of your potential

board members. Think of donations. And not just equipment

donations but funds as well too. How can you get financial

assistance funds coming in, donations as far as that?

Stakeholders and community partners as well. So not just

the customers you serve but a bigger audience.

Again, what are the key messages and/or pieces of

information you want your website to communicate? So when

you list your target audience, what is the message that you

want them to get from your website? And are there

different messages or sets of information for different

audiences?

So it may not be one message for every single

person visiting your website or a category of individuals

visiting your website. It could be different messages for

each category.

So website purpose. What needs to be on the site

to get your message information across? And I put "(More

Later)" because we're actually going to get into the

nitty-gritty and more of those concrete examples and a list

of that information later on in this webinar.

Do you have a funder and/or parent organization?

So, for example, with Pass It On Center we need to think

that we're housed under the Georgia Department of Labor and

Vocational Rehabilitation.

Are there other stakeholders in your website and

public image that are not target audiences but who would

still need to be consulted in your creation of your website

or the information that you put up?

And if so, what are the guidelines and the rules

that you need to follow for all of this public information

to be up on your website? That's something that's very

important that folks need to pay attention to and just be

aware of.

So now we're moving into the website organization.

And this is more of what you see first when you get to the

website, the different categories on the home page and the

secondary pages as well too.

So a question that I have up here is: Do you want

a splash page? For those of you who are not familiar with

a splash page -- and this is something that I had seen for

many years on the Internet just in my research in the

things that I do but never knew what it was called.

A splash page or a jump page is actually a special

entrance to a website. So some of y'all may have actually

been to a website, and when you type in the web address and

you hit "Enter" and you come across the website, you don't

actually go to a home page first.

You maybe see a really sharp looking flash image

that maybe shows folks sanitizing equipment or folks using

reused equipment. And I'm using an example of an AT reuse

or DME program.

But maybe you see some sort of fancy intro page

that can be a video or graphics. And then you would click

"Skip Intro," or you would pay attention to what's going

on. And then, when it would finish, you would get to the

meat, the home page of the website.

That is what we call a splash page. So if you do

want a splash page, if you do want that to appear before

you get into the website, like an entrance page, think

about what goes on that page. Do you want it to be images?

Do you want it to be text?

And remember, you don't want it to overwhelm the

person before they're visiting your website. You want them

to actually be intrigued, not to say, "Oh, goodness. I

don't want to have anything to do with this program." So

remember you just want to always keep that simple.

What information do you want on the home page?

What I recommend is just making a list of every single

thing that you want on the home page. It's better to start

bigger and then to work your way down.

And that can be very, very overwhelming. One of

the tasks that I do with the Pass It On Center is actually

taking charge of our website. So if y'all like the

website, then thank you. And if you don't, then certainly

send feedback our way, my way, because we're always wanting

to improve everything that we have on the website.

But I will admit it can be extremely overwhelming.

If we have a new event coming up or a new video that we

posted or something new that's really cool -- an article or

anything of that nature -- I always want to put something

on the home page to catch someone's attention and then take

them on to the page that they need to go to get the bulk of

the information.

But I have to tell you, if it weren't for the team

saying, "Liz, hold your horses. Calm down," there would be

everything in the world on our home page because it can be

really overwhelming. There's so much information out

there.

So the best thing that I would recommend is just to

make a list of all the information that you do want on your

home page -- and we'll actually talk about this in a few

moments -- and work your way back from that to really

condense that list.

All the information that you have should be easily

linked from the home page as well too. So again, if you

have a new article that you want to put up, you can have a

box or a spotlight on your home page that would just give

the title of the article, and it would take you to the

article as well too.

So what information do you maybe not want fully on

the home page but you want easily linked from the home page

as well too. And again, I understand this is where it can

be extremely overwhelming.

What and where do you imagine your navigation to

be? And what I mean by that is the actual buttons that you

click to go further into your website. So they can be on

the left-hand side.

And these are the main links or buttons clicked to

get to other pages on your website. So they could be on

the left-hand side or across the top. And I'm using

examples of the Pass It On Center website because I know

that many of y'all have been on and are familiar with the

Pass It On Center website.

So things could say "Home," "Webinars," "Knowledge

Base," "Reuse Donations," "Volunteers." Things like that.

What are the main buttons that you want on your home page

to go further into your website?

Home page layout. Some more about website design.

As I was doing research for this webinar and really trying

to get lots of easy, useful tips for y'all to use and to

share, one thing that I've used in the past that I think

works really well in designing your home page is literally

taking a sheet of paper, an eight-and-a-half-by-11 standard

piece of paper, and turning it sideways so it's in

landscape format and using that as designing your home

page.

So literally grabbing a pencil or a pen and drawing

your logo on there, drawing your links on there, drawing

boxes of information that you want. Where do you want your

welcome message to go?

All of these things that you put on your list of

what you want on your home page, what you want easily

linked from your home page, this is where I would actually

put it into that visual that you've got going on in your

mind and saying, "This is exactly what I want to use, what

I want my home page on my program website to look like."

You'd be amazed how a sheet of paper can be a great web

design tool.

The thing about when you're creating the home page,

you want your most important pieces of information to go in

this space. Again, I know how overwhelming it can be.

But you really want the most important piece of

information that, when your visitor logs in, after they get

to that intro page, if that's the avenue that you choose,

when they get to your home page, this is where you want

them to see your logo; you want them to see your main

navigation; your most important message; possibly your

mission statement; a little bit about your program.

But this is where you want them to see all the

important things about your program, what you've got going

on, to really connect with your program so they want to

delve further into the website and find out more about your

program and what you have to offer.

One thing that I put here is, if your online

visitor has to take a significant amount of time to locate

the important information on your website, they'll probably

lose interest very quickly.

A lot of times people are going to your website to

get very specific information: How do I donate equipment?

How do I donate funds? How do I get equipment in my hands?

So when you're making that list of your target

audiences and thinking about why would they be visiting my

website, what are the things that they want and that they

need and that they need and want right now?

Those are the things that you want to make highly

visible to your visitor. Because if they've got to hunt

and peck and do all of those things, they're going to say,

"You know what? I could probably find this information

elsewhere," and they're going to move on.

You don't want to lose your customers just because

you have the information on your website but it's not

highly visible. So that's something to keep in mind.

So the things to keep in mind are your logo; colors

of logo; other colors of your program, your organization.

And when I talk about organization, I'm talking about the

layout of the home page, what's happening on the home page.

Is it easy visibility? Is it accessible? Does it make

sense, the flow?

Do you have a background image or a color? What

looks good, image-rich versus text-heavy? Do you want to

have lots of images, or is there a lot of text? And white

space as well too.

And for some of you that are not familiar with

white space, white space is the space between different

elements of a design. So basically white space is

literally the white space between text, images, paragraphs,

headers, footers, links, all of the different subject

matter on your website, on your web page. White space is

all that space in between.

A lot of times when I'm working on websites or what

I've even heard just talking to folks that work with

websites and what I actually said in the beginning before I

got familiar with working with websites is that there seems

to be this underlying fear or this notion that, if there's

too much white space or too much emptiness on a website,

that your website looks incomplete.

And I used to definitely think that in the

beginning. But if you think about filling in all of the

website spaces, you would probably have a little bit of a

circus happening on your website.

So the thing is is that you want to think in terms

of your selling point. White space, while it could look

very empty, it actually provides a very sophisticated and

uniformed look.

And if you think about it in the terms of it really

draws attention to a specific selling point. So let's say

you have information up about what is AT reuse and the

mission of your program and how a customer can get their

hands on a reused piece of equipment.

And let's say you just have a paragraph or a bullet

point list of information up there as well as a picture,

but the rest of the website underneath is blank, what that

really is going to do is force that person, that visitor

visiting your website and that page, to really focus on

that information.

So all they're going to see is the picture and the

bullet points or the paragraph explaining about reuse, AT,

or DME. So it really has them focus on that specific piece

of information.

And so using photos and having all of that very

organized will just help them to concentrate on the reason

why they came to the website in the first place. Because

obviously they're coming for a specific piece of

information, and we want to cater to their needs and make

sure they can find that information as well too.

The usability study that Pass It On Center did a

year ago, the next couple of slides actually explain how we

went about doing that and what really helped us.

We did this in three phases. And the whole point

of the usability study, as I mentioned earlier, was to

really help us organize our website in a manner that was

going to benefit our visitors.

We at Pass It On Center knew exactly what we wanted

our website to look like, but we were coming from a very

biased point of this center that had all this information

and that may have not been the best way to -- I mean that

wasn't the best way to go about looking at it.

We needed to put ourselves in other people's shoes

and to come about it from the point of the visitor and

different audiences as well too.

So this really helped us to organize our website in

a very accessible, clean way and to get information up

there that, yes, all of it is very important, but to really

focus on some more of the important pieces of information

that all of you, all of the AT reuse programs across the

country said, "This is the information that we want, and we

want it now. We need it up in an area that we can get our

hands on."

So the usability study happened in three phases.

The phase 1 was a web-card-sort activity. Phase 2 was

interviews. And then phase 3 was on-site testing.

The web-card-sort activity, what actually happened

was participants were asked to arrange virtual index cards

in order to a specific category. And the screen shot I

have up here, it wasn't our specific usability study, but

it just shows literally how somebody would have virtual

index cards.

They would sign into a website, and there would be

cards with different pieces of terminology on there. So

for Pass It On Center, we had things like "Reuse." We had

"Assistive Technology," "Durable Medical Equipment,"

"Environment," "Landfill," "Recycle," "Refurbish," you

know, "Sanitize." All of the information that we hear in

our AT reuse community.

And we asked folks to organize that into different

categories that we had predetermined. So what that really

did was help us to manage the information flow and to

really put an organized -- it really helped us to be one

step ahead to organize the information the way we needed to

do it.

The website that we used to do this is

www.websort.net. And it's $79 for a hundred participants.

So you can have a hundred participants sign up to do this

and pay $79, and you could actually go in and create your

virtual index cards that they can organize.

Phase 2 were interviews. And they were literally

face-to-face interviews. And we asked volunteers -- we had

volunteers. We didn't force anybody to do it.

We asked questions about their experience first of

all with AT reuse in general, and then we asked them

specifics about the Pass It On Center home page and about

the Pass It On Center knowledge base. And we actually had

forms and questions that they filled out based on their

experience with these items.

Phase 3, as I said, is the on-site testing that we

did. And we had participants, again volunteers, come to

the Pass It On Center. They used the computer. And what

they did was went through a series of scenarios and

answered each question based on how they would go about

finding it on a website page.

So, for example, we gave them a scenario of AT

reuse or sanitization or accessibility and had them play

around with the website and where they would go to get to

that piece of information based on how our website was

already built.

So they would go to the home page. What would they

click on? And once they got there, where else would they

go?

What this helped us to do was to really find out,

is it taking them a hundred clicks to get to the

information that they want to get to, or are they literally

getting there within two or three clicks. And it really

helped us to get that organized and get that more

accessible for our users as they're coming to our website.

The purpose of the user interviews was to gain a

better understanding of user's perceptions of our website.

Again, we wanted to know how they navigated the site and

how they were using it to find information. We wanted to

discover the types of information that they would like to

see on the website too.

So again, we had tons of ideas of what we wanted up

there, but it wasn't necessarily what other folks wanted to

see as well too.

And, obviously, we just wanted to get more

information on how we can improve our website for users

that were signing into our website.

The study, it really, really helped us to improve

the overall look of Pass It On Center and the overall

distribution of our information. We completely

restructured the website. We reorganized it. And we added

more information based on what the feedback was from the

usability studies.

And it really helped us with our internal structure

here at Pass It On Center to focus on what was important

and where to put that on the website as well too.

So these were some questions that we asked

ourselves to help us get to that point along with the

usability studies as well too.

So how did they use it? Meaning, how do our

audiences use the website? What do they want to do once

they got on the website? How can we make it easier for

other users?

And how can we actually use the website to ease the

burden on the staff? So getting creative with responding

to inquiries, mailing information forms, things of that

nature as well too.

Because a website, if you think about it, it's not

just for your target audience out there. It's also for

your program as well too. It can help you be completely

organized with your program's daily activities and to

really help y'all be more internally in sync with what

you're doing every day.

These are some resources that are posted up on the

knowledge base now. So this first article is titled "Why

You Only Need to Test With Five Users." When we were

starting with the usability studies, we thought we were

going to have to have 80, 90 people come in and, you know,

do interviews and get on the web-sort activity and get on

the website to answer all of these questions.

But we found this article that really helped us to

kind of get our ducks in a row and keep things organized.

So you don't need a million and one people coming to your

program to help you out. You really just need five. So

that explains more of the science and the resources behind

that.

Again, in the knowledge base we posted our user

interview guide and our on-site interview guide. So we

actually have the interviews that we used up on the

knowledge base. So feel free to use that format or even

use the questions, but cater it more towards your program

website and what you would like to have accomplished.

So the next couple of slides that I have are

planning ideas. And these ideas are just topics and

suggestions on what you want to include when you're

restructuring or revamping your website.

So again, it's when you're making that list on the

home page or for your secondary pages, these are some

things that you want to pay attention to, to jot down as

well too.

Along with the planning ideas, we actually have

some examples from reuse programs that are actually using

their websites to communicate more effectively.

I want to thank so much Trish Redmon, who's on the

Pass It On Center team, who helped me go through all of the

Pass It On Center locations in the database -- all the

reuse programs in the Pass It On Center "Locations"

database. We went through all of them.

And Trish really was great at picking out the

programs that really focused on one piece of information

that was just absolutely wonderful that we just want to

say, "This is a great example to follow." So the next

couple of slides focus on that.

And again, we found all of y'all in the Pass It On

Center "Locations" database. So if your program is not in

the database or if you are currently working with a program

that is not in the database, jump on the Pass It On Center

website and get registered, create an account for your

program to be on the database because that's how folks are

finding you.

This also reminds me to give another tip as well

too. A lot of times when you're working with a program and

you're trying to market your program and you're doing link

exchanges -- so maybe you're putting your web address on

another website and that website is saying, "Hey, can we

put our web address on your website?"

Or let's say you're registering with different

search engines -- not search engines but different programs

that folks can go to to find more about assistive

technology or assistive technology reuse.

For example, United Way. Folks call United Way to

get information about programs that serve individuals with

disabilities. And that would be a great way to get your

program listed.

Keep a list of all the places that you sign up

with. It can be extremely overwhelming, especially when

you're marketing your program and you're just trying to get

your program out there so more of your community knows

about you. You're signing up on websites upon websites

upon websites. And you've got passwords, and you've got

different times of the year that you're signing up on

websites as well too.

Keep a list of those things as you're doing that so

you know every year to go back and update or get in touch

with them. If they haven't gotten in touch with you about

updating your organization's information, you can go back

out there and update your information as well too.

Because, again, there's nothing more frustrating

than being a user, going to a website, trying to get

information, and you can't find it. The link is old. The

information is old. So again, you just want to really be

mindful of that and update your information wherever it is

up there.

So the first thing that I want to focus on is

"About Us," the "About Us" section on the website, and who

you are. Again, this is the section that's going to tell

everyone, your visitors that are visiting your website,

more about the basics of your program.

And these are some things that we threw out there

that we thought would be helpful for y'all to take into

consideration.

So obviously the name of your program. Type of

legal structure or organization. Again, are you part of a

larger organization? Your mission statement. Your vision

and your values. What is your mission statement? What is

the vision of your program, the values of your program?

What are those things that you focus on that you want folks

to know that you're really dedicated to?

The reason why I put IQ-ATR (the Indicators of

Quality for AT Reuse) out beside that is that I want to

remind folks that we do have the "Indicators of Quality for

Assistive Technology Reuse Tool" up on the Pass It On

Center home page.

And if you're having difficulty building your

mission statement or wanting to put more structure around

that, you can actually visit the IQ-ATR, and that tool will

actually help you redesign that or put more structure

around it and make it really strong.

Some information that you could possibly put up is

about the populations that you serve in your community or

your region. A brief history about your program. Just a

sentence or a paragraph.

You don't want to go into a novel of the history of

your program but just the gist of where your program

started, how your program started, just to give folks

background information.

And if the legal structure or the organization --

if you're part of a larger organization, if that wasn't

clarified earlier, this would be a great place for y'all to

clarify that, who operates the program.

Where does your funding come from. A list of your

board of directors or advisory council members with their

affiliations. List of officers or key managers. Job

openings or job descriptions, application forms. And a

press release archive as well.

So this next slide that I have is from the FREE

Foundation in Virginia. And the reason why we chose the

FREE Foundation is because their mission and their vision

is clearly displayed on every page of their website.

So hopefully y'all can see this screen shot. I

have a red arrow pointing exactly where I want y'all to

look. But it has the mission of their program, their

vision, and their values as well up there. And it's on

every single page of their website no matter where you're

linked, which is an absolutely brilliant idea because it

really does kind of instill that idea, really reminds folks

of the basics of what their program believes in.

And it will make folks want to keep coming back and

really do work with your program as well too. So we want

to show this great example from the FREE Foundation in

Virginia.

Paraquad in St. Louis Missouri has a great page

that explains their board of directors and officers. So

this is a screen shot of that page, of the board of

directors page, in Paraquad. And it just very thoroughly

lists the board of directors and officers for Paraquad, for

that organization.

Goodwill-Easter Seals of the Gulf Coast. The

reason why we chose to show their information is because

they have a helpful listing of open positions. They list

online employment applications as well too.

So the grid that you see here under "job

opportunities" lists all of that information in a very

concise, clear manner. So there's no question really for

the user to ask about job positions, about when something

is due, the hours of submitting an application, or all of

those details as well.

Contact information. That's something that's

obviously very important to have on your website. There's

different ways to go about contacting as well too. Believe

it or not, not everybody in the world has a computer, and

not everybody in the world has access to the Internet.

I think oftentimes -- I know I will sometimes

forget that and just assume everybody's up to speed like I

am.

So you want to make sure that you have numerous

different ways for an individual to get in touch with your

program. So mail, like actually mail mail, mailing through

a mailbox. Believe it or not, mail is still out there.

Internet, preferably with some individualized addresses by

name or even by function.

So, for example, on the Pass It On Center website,

if you go under "Contact Us," you'll actually see a head

shot, a bio, and contact information for all of the Pass It

On Center team. And you're able to get in touch with each

one of us individually as well too.

It would be great if somebody clicked on your name

and -- let's say Patty from Kansas. If somebody clicked on

your e-mail address, and all of a sudden it popped up their

e-mail application that they use -- their e-mail program

that they use, and it automatically just addressed an

e-mail to you. So all they had to do is type in the body

of the e-mail the message that they want to get to you.

So that's something to think about as well too,

making it very easy for folks to e-mail you and contact you

via Internet.

Telephone, fax, and other information. So if

somebody is using a communication device and needs to get

in touch with you via an Ojo or any other communication

device, how would they go about doing that as well.

The University of Montana Rural Institute. This is

a screen shot of their contact info page. And we really

like this because this is very inclusive. It has their

contact information with telephone directory and bios as

well too.

And they actually listed the alphabet. So if you

were wanting to get in touch with somebody with the last

name R, you would click on R, and it would jump to their

name as well too. So it's a very easy way to search for

folks that you are trying to get in touch with.

How to find you. Not just contact information. So

not just mail, telephone, Internet, but your physical

address. Do you have a map of your area? Do you have

directions on your website for major access routes as well

too?

This is something that's going to come in extremely

handy for somebody who's donating equipment. Let's say all

of a sudden they've got some crutches and some walkers and

maybe a power chair that they've collected and they need to

get out of their house or get out from wherever they've

collected it from. And they want to get it to you, and

they want to get it to you now.

One of the things that they're going to want to do

is be able to find your location and get there very

quickly. So having a map and specific directions on your

website is a great idea.

And so this is a screen shot from the Southern Tier

Independence Center in Binghamton, New York. And they had

great examples of how to find their facilities. So they

actually have their address on there, and they have several

maps based on different directions. So from the north,

south, east, and west they had different maps from

different directions. So this is a screen shot of one

specific map that they have on there.

Programs or services offered. These are some

things to think about when you're creating that section on

your website. So a list of equipment and services with

brief descriptions; how do you get additional information

about the program or additional information about the

equipment and services; a link to a portion of the site

where your customer can get forms to apply.

So if you actually have forms that your customer

needs to fill out or to apply for your program, where can

they get it on the website? Is that easily visible? Is it

accessible? Is it in downloadable format as well too where

they can just download it and fill it out, e-mail it back,

or bring it in with them ahead of time?

That's one thing that I do love is being able to

get your hands on those forms ahead of time and being able

to bring it in to the center that you're visiting so you

can go ahead and get to why you came there in the first

place.

Fee schedule, if there are any fees. What are

their fees, and what do they pertain to? And having that

really clear and highly visible so your customers know what

they're getting into, and they're aware of everything that

you have to offer and what they may or may not have to pay

for ahead of time.

Equipment donations. What type of equipment do you

and don't you accept? I think it's very important to

include both of those. What you need most and what you

need right now. So if you're in need of wheelchairs --

manual wheelchairs and you want those right now, I would

make a list of that. Communication devices, things like

that. Where to bring the donations. How to schedule a

pickup for donations if it's even offered. Proof of

ownership or some sort of signed release.

And information about receipts and tax deductions.

People always want to know the benefit for them as well

too, especially if they're donating equipment and they just

found out about you because of a sign somewhere.

Or if you've marketed yourself well and you've got

information in the grocery store or at the post office,

just out and about in your community, they're going to want

to know how they can benefit if they donate equipment as

well too.

So this is a screen shot of the 3-R Project -- the

three R's: reclaim, reuse, recycle -- from the Opportunity

Center and Easter Seals in Anniston, Alabama.

And the reason why we have their screen shot up of

their portion on their website is because they clearly

state the services that they provide and the devices that

they accept.

So again, I have a large red arrow pointing to the

section of some pieces of equipment that they will collect

on there as well too. So if you want to find out more

details about what they collect and how they explain that

information, just visit their website.

Project MEND in San Antonio, Texas. We really like

the way that they had donations that they need right now

displayed on their home page. That was something that they

found to be very important, things that they needed right

now. So they have it prominently displayed on their home

page.

So again, I have that red arrow pointing to their

section that says the things that they need right now. And

if you notice, the first thing they have there, it says

"Funding," and then they have the list of equipment as well

too. So they're getting right to the point, and they're

letting folks know the things that they accept and that

they need right now.

This little graph that I have here just explains

information that you should think about specifically for

your AT reuse customers when you're doing your website.

So, for example, your publications. An example

would be your brochure. Are they downloadable? Are they

easy to get to? Maybe information for caregivers or

support systems as well too.

Description of the process for AT reuse customers.

So if they call in, is there a quick assessment over the

phone? Do they visit the center? What does that process

look like?

Applications forms to download. We discussed that.

Referral policies and eligibility policies as well too. So

just some ideas of what to include specifically for AT

reuse customers.

How to support us. This is another great thing

that we've heard time and time again from reuse programs

across the country, is how can we get more information out

there about how our community can support us?

So these are just some things to think about to

possibly list on your website for folks -- how to

contribute by money. And if they do that, do you accept

checks? Do you want them to contribute by mail or to pay

online? How to contribute in-kind services. Listing your

needed services on your website as well too.

And volunteers. If you utilize volunteers, listing

your volunteers' needs and the services that you need your

volunteers to perform as well too.

This is a screen shot -- and I'm hoping that y'all

can see this. I know that it's a little fuzzy -- but this

is from the Center For Independent Living Broward in

Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

And the reason why we chose this screen shot is

because they clearly have a way for you to make a donation

online via PayPal. So this is their page. If you go to

their website and you want to donate to them online, funds

online, it takes you to their PayPal page where you can

donate that way.

So that's another option as well too. It's very

easy to set up, and folks can just click and pay via

PayPal.

Bluegrass Technology Center in Lexington, Kentucky.

We really like their page because they have a very detailed

list of descriptions of core volunteers so they have

volunteer opportunities. And once you click on the

volunteer opportunity, it drops you down to a description

of what it is that volunteer will be doing.

So it's very, very detailed, very clear. So if

somebody is interested in volunteering, they have all the

information they need right then and there.

DC Shares. Again, more detailed descriptions of

how to volunteer. We really like this one.

And the next page, DC Shares actually has a

volunteer application form already up on their website. So

once you read through the descriptions of how to volunteer

and you're interested in something, you can go ahead and

sign on, put in your name, your address, the information in

exactly what you're interested in volunteering for.

So that's actually a great, great idea. So all of

your application forms would just come in, and everything

would be set up ahead of time, which is a really, really

cool idea.

FODAC. They are great about listing and

recognizing their sponsors on their website. So we really

like their sponsor page because they have disclosure about

supporters, the listing of their corporate foundation and

church sponsors as well too.

So if you go to FODAC's website and you look on

their sponsor page, it has a detailed list of their

different supporters and their different sponsors and

information about those folks as well too. So very good in

recognizing the people that support your program, so that

way they'll support your program in the future as well.

Marketing. This section on your website is very

important. So having a calendar of upcoming events. Are

you attending a conference? Are you having an AT reuse

donation day?

Success stories. That's very, very important as

well too. A lot of times if somebody doesn't know where to

donate equipment and they want to know is this the right

place, they're going to want to see some positive, cool

story about where the equipment is going and who benefited

from it. So having success stories visible is a wonderful,

wonderful idea.

Having an archive of stories about the program

published elsewhere is great as well too. So just having a

publication link that goes to a list of different articles

that made it in your local newspaper or in a magazine or

anywhere. Having all of that there is a great way to let

folks know of the different activities that you've been up

to.

And awards received. I know that all of y'all have

heard us at Pass It On Center say this time and time again.

If you've received an award, like many folks did last year

September at the National AT Reuse Conference here in

Atlanta, we took pictures of the award recipients with

their awards, and if they wanted a description of what the

award was, we gave it to them.

And a lot of folks took that information and really

contacted their local community newspapers and really

published themselves that way as well too. So if you get

an award, get it out there. Let folks know. That's a

great, great way for marketing your program and letting

folks know more about your program and what you've

accomplished.

AT4ALL, Nebraska's assistive technology program.

Their newsletter actually has some great success stories of

AT reuse. So this is a screen shot of different folks

receiving different pieces of equipment and just a very

brief, to-the-point story explaining how they got the

equipment and how they benefited from the equipment.

So now here is the fun part: Welcome to the

Webbies.

Before we get into this, I'm going to release the

mic for just a second.

Does anybody have any questions about anything that

I've covered so far? Has this information been helpful?

Okay. Well, thank you, Vivian. I surely

appreciate that. And we'll obviously have more time for

questions in just a few moments.

But before I get into that, we wanted to say

"Welcome to the Webbies." What we did, this is our green

carpet. If you can see, there's actually a stage with a

green curtain, and it says "Welcome to the Webbies."

And what we wanted to do was really recognize folks

that are putting -- that are really using a feature of

their program and making it work well for them on their

website.

So this is not intended to say this is the way it

has to be done, but we really wanted to recognize them for

doing an outstanding job in their own way and just

featuring really great features on their website and making

it highly visible as well too.

So if y'all want to receive a Webbie in the future,

pay attention to these websites that we are going to

announce, and they're doing it a great way -- a great

exemplary way for y'all to follow examples.

So this is a list of some folks that we have that

we really want to recognize:

Opportunity Center, Easter Seal, 3-R Project in

Anniston, Alabama. Again, just clear examples of equipment

accepted for donation.

Nebraska's AT Program. Great reuse success

stories.

Your Source, Inc. in New Jersey. They had a very

highly visible display of items needed in their current

wish list on their home page.

Project MEND. Using their site to recruit new

board members, which we thought was very clever and a

really wonderful thing to do.

Paraquad. They had a very brief but informative

"About Us." So they didn't go on and on for days, but they

had some really great information.

FREE in Virginia for a design that reminds viewers

on every page their mission and vision and how to help the

program. So that's one of the ones that we showed earlier.

Bluegrass Technology Center. They had a great

volunteer page with people-friendly job descriptions.

FODAC. They were wonderful at acknowledging their

sponsors.

The University of Montana Rural Institute. They

prominently display their success stories.

LATAN in Louisiana. Highly visible calendar of

events.

Three Rivers Center for Independent Living.

Easy-to-use manual donation form.

DC Shares. Clearly defined eligibility and

referral checklists for professionals.

East Tennessee Technology Access Center.

Accessibility for reaching the community with translation

into seven languages. That's something that we thought was

really cool -- seven different languages on their website.

Southern Tier Independence Center in Binghamton,

New York for outstanding maps and directions to the

facility.

So we thought that this would be a really fun way

to recognize programs for really having that information on

the website and for using it really well and just a great

example of how other reuse programs can do the same thing

as well too.

And as Trish said -- thank you, Trish -- the

physical award certificate for Webbie recipients will be in

the mail tomorrow. So this is something that y'all will

actually receive and hopefully hang it proudly and display

it proudly for really doing an outstanding job with your

website and getting information across.

So this is just a picture of the certificate. And

this is an example that is going to DC Shares, and it's for

clearly defined client eligibility and referral checklists

for professionals. So they were able to get that

information out there and be very concise and clearly

defined with it.

So I really want to thank all of y'all for being on

here. I'm going to release the mic just for a few seconds.

So if anyone has any questions or any comments, now would

be the time to do it.

All right. Well, if there are no questions and no

comments, again, I want to thank you all so much for being

on this webinar. I truly hope that this information was

helpful, that you were able to take something from it in

being able to get the information organized for really

using your website to communicate more effectively.

Just a reminder, if you're interested in getting

CEUs, you can go to the AAC Institute website, click on

their "CEU" section, and there will be all the information

that you need there to register for CEUs.

Kathy Adams in Maine asked, "Remind us how we can

get a copy of your PowerPoint presentation."

Kathy, the PowerPoint along with the transcription

and the audio of this webinar will be on the Pass It On

Center website under the "Webinar" section in about three

weeks. So in about three weeks we'll have it up on the

Pass It On Center website. All right. Thank you.

Well, again, thank you guys so much. If you have

any questions, I'll hang out for a little while. As

always, feel free to get in touch with us at the Pass It On

Center.

Again, this is Liz. And if you have any questions

for me, feel free to e-mail me at liz@passitoncenter.org.

And, Trish, you are absolutely right. There are

many, many more great ideas out there that reuse programs

are doing.

So feel free to browse the "Reuse Locations"

database on the Pass It On Center website. Click on the

websites that are registered in there, and just take a look

at what's going on in your community. You'll be amazed at

some wonderful ideas that folks have that are really

working for them. So grab some ideas from folks and make

it work for you too.

So thank you guys so much. And we'll talk to you

soon. Take care. Bye.