While personal sites can be a powerful tool, we don't think it's productive to force a teacher to have a website. For example, we have found that elementary and middle schools typically have fewer students using teacher websites than a high school might have. So mandating teachers to maintain a website just because it is available to them creates a lot of sites that are either not updated or poorly done. Which can create additional headaches that need to be addressed for various things including ADA compliance.
Personal (teacher) web pages can be managed either in SchoolStatus Sites or any other third-party source. If you choose not to manage personal (teacher) websites in SchoolStatus Sites, then we recommend Google Sites, since it's integrated with Google Apps customers, and Google is committed to the ADA movement.
The issue now comes back to the teachers. Who's committed to setting up their website, and managing it? We think a teacher should have to request a website. If they go so far as to request a website, they are more likely to update it.
Please remember if a personal website is managed in Google sites, there is less control over how it looks and fits in with the school brand. However, if a website is managed in SchoolStatus, we can enforce a little more control over the look and feel, but like any other CMS, there are best practices on how to create the content within our page editor. For example, pasting as plain text so that foreign styles are not copied over into the editor.
In all cases of personal sites, there are bound to be ADA violations that need to be identified and corrected. Hopefully, over time, those that decide to create personal sites will learn and use the basic principles of ADA compliance in developing their sites.
In the end, while we do recommend using SchoolStatus Sites for creating personal sites we do understand some might choose to use Google Sites or another third-party source to develop them. But no matter what you decide, we do recommend at least having a faculty directory that will list everyone, along with their picture, bio contact, info, and any detailed information that a school wants to share. This will maintain ADA compliance on its own, and it's sufficient for most schools. Then if and when it's time to link to a teacher’s website, the URL link can be added in their profile.
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