The University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston is committed to providing quick, accurate access to information to make your educational experience as pleasurable as possible. To ensure this we follow Web standards as required by Texas State Law, UTHSC-H Policy and Dental School Policy.

Texas State Law

   State law requires that The University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston as a state funded institution adhere to the following policy and guidelines:

1. HIPAA - The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996

2. FERPA - The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act

3. ADA - American Disabilities Act: State Rules

3. State link policy - State Web Site Link and Privacy Policy

4. State meta tag policy - World Wide Web Design Standards and Coding Guidelines

UTHSC-H Policy

   Refer to the Editorial Standards site for the correct styling of institutional names used in text. The Graphic Standards will give you pointers for a look at the proper university logo types as well as access to all the graphic files at the Logo Download site. The Web Standards site will give you the information you need for a compliant and easily to navigate Web site.

1. Proper school name usage shall be first occurrence (The University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston), second occurrence (UTHSC-H Dental Branch), and third of more (Dental Branch).

2. All Dental Branch Web pages shall have located somewhere on the page a link to the official UTHSC-H (home page).

3. The Dental Branch home page shall have the following state required links located on it. UTHSC-H, Linking Policy, State of Texas, Statewide Search, Statutorily Required Reports, University Privacy and Security Policy, University Accessibility Policy, Open Records Policy, and Legal Disclaimer.

4. All Dental Branch Web pages are to use the provided footer that includes required elements of email contact to web editor, date modified, and the following links: UTHSC-H, Dental Branch, University Privacy and Security Policy, and University Accessibility Policy.

5. FERPA - The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act as interpreted by the Registers Office. UTHSC-H Handbook of Operation Procedures (HOOP).

Dental School Policy

   The Dental Branch has developed policies and guidelines to better communicate information between faculty, staff, students and the public at large. These policies and guidelines are to be followed for any information posted to a Web site hosted on equipment paid for with monies from the state of Texas. The Web site of www.db.uth.tmc.edu and all pages contained within it are considered state resources and fall under these policies and guidelines. The following are a quick overview of the policies and guidelines.

1. All Web pages hosted on university servers shall follow all Federal, State and University policies and guidelines.

2. All Web sites, Web pages or other information pertaining to the Dental Branch as a school, its curriculum or programs, student information, sponsored Dental organizations shall be hosted on university Web servers.

3. All faculty, staff and students are to use their UTHSC-H provided email for communications within the university. Forwarding email from the UTHSC-H email account is not allowed as of September 1, 2004.

4. Web content is to be associated with the Dental profession and not of a personal nature.

5. Biographies my be posted using a standard template and stored on the Web server in the provided area. Location for
Bio's - http://www.db.uth.tmc.edu/bios (bio template). CV's may also be posted using the DB provided template. Location for CV's - http://www.db.uth.tmc.edu/CV.

6. Information of a personal nature is not to be posted on any Web pages on university Web servers. Examples are vacation information and photos, photos of family, information and pictures of hobbies.

7. Links to personal pages not stored on university web servers are allowed within a Web page as long as they open into a new occurrence of a Web browser window.

8. All Dental Branch pages will have the Dental Branch logo on them with the logo linked to the Dental Branch homepage of http://www.db.uth.tmc.edu. The logo is to be used as provided and not modified or scaled in any way.

9. All web pages will be made of four manditory components. a) Header - comprised of DB provided logo (linked) and the departmental name or program in either text or an image. b) Navigation system - navigation bar to be used as a template throughout the site c) Body - content or information page with standard formating applied to title. d) Footer - contains email contact link to department or Web developer, java script for date modified, link to UTHSC-H, link to Dental Branch, link to University Privacy and Security Policy, link to University Accessibility Policy.

10. Required photographic permissions: a) Make a public announcement that pictures will be taken during a public event for the use on the Dental Branch web site. b) Before taking picture of a gathering of individuals ask permission and inform the individuals that you will be posting the pictures to the Dental Branch Web site. c) Re-use of graphics including pictures on the Dental Branch Web site is allowed only after obtaining permission by the department or originating individual first posting the graphic. d) Photographs of individuals or groups of individuals must be removed from the university Web servers upon the request of an individual contained within the photograph.

11. Photographs or graphics must be professional in nature and not of offensive material.

12. Only Dental Branch sponsored events shall be posted on university servers. Examples of such events are: recreational sports (RecSports Softball League), affiliation meetings (American Dental Association), group functions (meal at restaurant).

13. The Dental Branch will host affiliation Web sites only by special permission. For permission contact Deborah Biner.