Gandalf Development provides a product, Estrada Web Technology, for managing Section 508-compliant Web sites.
Estrada gives you the ability to implement the Section 508 accessibility standards for electronic information quickly and cost- effectively. The advantage? Increased productity.
Estrada is the only Internet technology on the market that completely separates content from design. The advantage of this approach is that it allows you to set up a template or suite of templates that meet 508 specifications. These templates then control how data is displayed throughout your web site. Your Web authors can simply create content without ever having to worry about 508 compliance because the template will automatically take care of all of the design considerations.
Estrada is a preventative compliance measure, rather than a postmortem treatment tool. With Estrada, you can solve any Section 508 compliance problems in advance and avoid rolling back or retrofitting your Web site page-by-page.
Efficiency. Because content is separate from design, authors and other stakeholders in your web site don’t have to rely on designers or HTML coders to lay out every single page before a site can be published. Estrada’s efficient web development paradigm eliminates production bottlenecks—allowing for faster development and deployment of a web site or new pages.
Easier maintenance. Estrada also heads off potential maintenance headaches. If Section 508 were to be revised or new compliance guidelines are introduced in the future, all you need to do is update your template, which will automatically bring your entire site into compliance. There’s never any need for time-consuming page-by-page redesign.
Versatility. In addition to Section 508, your templates can also be set up to meet WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) standards, or an also help other HTML compliance standards.
Scalable. Designed specifically to manage large web sites, Estrada is an ideal technology for handling government agency web sites. Estrada has been deployed on sites totaling over 40,000 pages with over 600 authors.
Centralized Control, Distributed Authorship. For agencies containing multiple departments, Estrada’s database core makes it easy to avoid the logistical nightmare of trying to maintain and coordinate information on many web sites. Through hierarchical access privileges, an unlimited number of authors can contribute to all or designated areas within your overall web site.
Reuse Information. Authors have direct access to all existing information in the database, eliminating the need to retype pages of redundant data. They can easily re-use content by embedding it into their web pages. Best of all, Estrada makes sure that reused content throughout the site is always kept up-to-date.
Content Tagging and Classification: Related information throughout your site automatically appears on Web pages, enhancing the user experience.
Lower Development and Maintenance Costs. Anyone who can use a word processor can use Estrada, allowing your existing staff to create web content with minimum training. Not only will Estrada save you money by not having to add new information technology staff to your payroll but also but also help to keep your web sites up to date because the people who generate the information can also be the ones to update it on the web.
Security and Staging. For situations requiring stringent content delivery control or reviews prior to publication of new content, Estrada provides content staging. When it is employed, a designated individual or individuals must explicitly approve changes before they go into production.
Extendable Functionality. Estrada is more than an application--it’s a development platform. Whatever your needs, new functionalities can be added—developed either by Gandalf Development, Inc. or by your own programming staff.
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