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The Basics

The University of Houston signature, which consists of the characteristic University of Houston logotype, was designed to enhance our institutional identity. Correct usage of these design elements on all documents and web pages produced by the University of Houston communicates a consistent image of the university.

Following are some basic guidelines for correct usage of these design elements. For more detailed information please consult the "Graphic Elements," and "Statements" sections which follow.



In All UH Brochures
  • The University of Houston logotype must appear on the cover with sufficient prominence.
  • Ideally, the University of Houston logotype should be centered at the top of the cover
  • The UH Equal Opportunity (EEOC) statement must appear in your brochure. This statement can be found in the "Statements" section following. Other statements may apply as well; for more information please call the Office of Affirmative Action at 713-743-8835.


In All UH Newsletters
  • The name University of Houston must appear on the cover with sufficient prominence.
  • The UH logotype should be placed either on the front or back cover of your newsletter.


In All UH Advertisements
  • All advertisements to external audiences should display the UH logotype with sufficient prominence.
  • All advertisements to external audiences should carry the UH Equal Opportunity (EEOC) statement, which can be found in the "Statements" section following. Other statements may apply as well: for more information please call the Office of Affirmative Action at 713-743-8835.
  • All advertisements to external audiences must be approved by University Relations (713-743-8863), except those appearing in The Daily Cougar. 
  • Personnel ads must be approved by Human Resources at 713-743-5770 and the Office of Affirmative Action at 713-743-8835


Ad Approval Guidelines Update

The purchasing department requires all printed ads, digital ads, and promotional items to be approved by University Relations. Purchasing needs to see the approval for the ad before they can release funds to pay the vendor, per MAPP 04.01.03, Section VII, Item N (http://www.uh.edu/mapp/04/040103.pdf) Advertisements in the Daily Cougar, the Yellow Pages, KUHT or KUHF are exempt from pre-approval


University Relations has designated Marketing representative Madeline Nichley (mcnichley@uh.edu) and Creative Services representative Watson Riddle (wriddle@uh.edu).  Approvals are required from both designees. To reach both Ad Approval designees easily, please email your ad to adapproval@uh.edu

In the future, look for updates from University Relations as we finalize online documents that outline these policies.  Please use the following guidelines when requesting ad approvals:

  • Please send proofs of all advertising and promotional items that are printed, digital, etc. at least 5 business days before they are due to your printer, publisher, or other 3rd party vendor.
  • Please show proof that your ad has been reviewed and approved by your college or department’s Communications/Marketing Director or Dean’s office.
  • Please list the EO/AA Statement on all printed and digital ads.  To learn more, follow this link: http://www.uh.edu/policies/graphicstandards/state/index.php#equal
  • Please include at least one approved UH logo all printed and digital ads.  To learn more, follow this link: http://www.uh.edu/policies/graphicstandards/graphic/index.php#logotype
  • Please place all University of Houston logos at the top/front of your design.
  • Please make all University of Houston logos as large as or larger than any other logos/wordmarks on the piece.
  • Overall quality and consistency in messaging and appearance.


By following these guidelines, you will insure that University Relations is able to process your work in a timely manner.  If you have any questions, please contact Madeline Nichley at mnichley@Central.UH.EDU or Liz Selig at easelig@uh.edu

 


In All UH Invitations, Cards and Programs
  • The name of the university must be displayed with sufficient prominence.
  • Every effort should be made to display the UH logotype on the front of the document or on the back if need be.
  • Publications associated with special events must carry the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) statement, which can be found in the "Statements" section following. For more information on statements please contact the Office of Affirmative Action at 713-743-8835.


In All UH Web Pages


University-approved headers and footers must appear on all pages. Templates for these headers and footers can be found at www.uh.edu/templates/. For more information please call the Web Content Administrator at 713-743-8887.

Templates

If you are interested in using the new UH Web templates, please contact Elisa Crossland.

Headers & Footers

Using the UH headers and footers gives your users a more consistent experience, and allows you to reap the benefits of the extensive user testing done during the development of the new site.

Using the Headers & Footers

  1. See what the header and footer looks like by using the Preview links below. You'll need to include both the source and the appropriate stylesheet in your page.
  2. If your pages are on the central web server, you can use this SSI to include your header or footer in the body of your html document, and it will always be up-to-date.

    Put the relative path to your header or footer in the virtual parameter: 

    <!--#include virtual="/ssi/static-header.html" -->
  3. Otherwise, right-click the links below and save-as to download the source files for the header and footer of your choice.
  4. Either way, you'll need to make sure href, action, and other URL dependencies are correct when you use these on your page. If you are not on the central web server, try inserting http://www.uh.edu before any paths in your header and footer:

    action="/search/" becomes

    action="http://www.uh.edu/search/"

Standard Header

Standard Footer

Deprecated Headers & Footers

These should not be used, but have been automatically substituted on pages that use old-style image-map headers and footers.
Image-map Header - screenshot
Image-map Footer - screenshot

Cougar jpg


Cougarhttp://www.uh.edu/resources/services/web/cougar-4-1.jpg

















Web Accessibility/ADA


Executive Summary of UH Web Accessibility Standards:
http://www.uh.edu/policies/ada/index.php

All University web pages should be accessible in some form to those with disabilities, be they technological barriers (slow modems) or physical barriers (users with impaired vision). This is not just State law, but good sense: the more users who can access your information the better.

This is not a legal document. The information here is based on satisfying the State of Texas World Wide Web Design and Coding Guidelines, in particular the Web Accessibility Guidelines. To satisfy the legal requirements, UH web site pages should make every effort to adhere to the WC3 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The University guidelines below are derived from the W3C guidelines, and provide direct links to the W3C web site.

No matter what bells, whistles, or applets you wish to decorate your hypertext information with, ensure that no one is barred from i) navigating through your pages and ii) accessing the information on those pages. This is the same spirit as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which presently ensures no one is barred from accessing any physical University property (ie., access ramps, braille signs, etc.).

Note this isn't a dictate that all users experience your pages equally, only that all users can access them equally. For example, blind users surf the web using "readers" which speak the contents of a page, including the hyperlinks used for navigation. This does not mean you cannot embed pictures on pages, just that these pictures should also have text-equivalents embedded, such as "alt" tags on images or image maps.

For Students:
Cheryl Amoruso - Director
Director, Center for Students with DisABILITIES
For Staff & Faculty:
Able Garza, Office of Affirmative Action

  • In General
  • 1.1 Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element (e.g., via "alt", "longdesc", or in element content). This includes: images, graphical representations of text (including symbols), image map regions, animations (e.g., animated GIFs), applets and programmatic objects, ascii art, frames, scripts, images used as list bullets, spacers, graphical buttons, sounds (played with or without user interaction), stand-alone audio files, audio tracks of video, and video.
  • 2.1 Ensure that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup.
  • 4.1 Clearly identify changes in the natural language of a document's text and any text equivalents (e.g., captions).
  • 6.1 Organize documents so they may be read without style sheets. For example, when an HTML document is rendered without associated style sheets, it must still be possible to read the document.
  • 6.2 Ensure that equivalents for dynamic content are updated when the dynamic content changes.
  • 7.1 Until user agents allow users to control flickering, avoid causing the screen to flicker.
  • 14.1 Use the clearest and simplest language appropriate for a site's content.
  • Hyperlinks
  • Make certain every hyperlink on your page can be accessed with keyboard commands alone. For example, hitting the TAB-key on your keyboard should advance to every link on a page, whether the link is textual or defined on an image map or applet.
  • 13.1 Make hyperlinks descriptive. Avoid using the text "click here" for links, or include an "alt" or "title" tag inside the link with more descriptive content.
  • Images and Image Maps
  • 1.2 Provide redundant text links for each active region of a server-side image map.
  • 9.1 Provide client-side image maps instead of server-side image maps except where the regions cannot be defined with an available geometric shape.
  • Tables
  • 5.1 For data tables, identify row and column headers.
  • 5.2 For data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers, use markup to associate data cells and header cells.
  • Frames
  • 12.1 Title each frame to facilitate frame identification and navigation.
  • 12.2 Describe the purpose of frames and how frames relate to each other if it is not obvious by frame titles alone.

● 6.3 Ensure that pages are usable when scripts, applets, or other programmatic objects are turned off or not supported. If this is not possible, provide equivalent information on an alternative accessible page.

● 1.3 Until user agents can automatically read aloud the text equivalent of a visual track, provide an auditory description of the important information of the visual track of a multimedia presentation.
●1.4 For any time-based multimedia presentation (e.g., a movie or animation), synchronize equivalent alternatives (e.g., captions or auditory descriptions of the visual track) with the presentation.

● 4.11 Ensure that forms and form controls are accessible from keyboards and text-only environments.

● 11.4 If, after best efforts, you cannot create an accessible page, provide a link to an alternative page that uses W3C technologies, is accessible, has equivalent information (or functionality), and is updated as often as the inaccessible (original) page.

● A summary of the Texas guidelines. ...Transform Gracefully...

In All UH News Releases

All news releases pertaining to the University of Houston are handled by the Office of Media Relations (713-743-8155).

Anything Else

Graphic standards apply to anything bearing the university's name or signature.