Accessibility and SLS

From EIT Library Accessibility Guidelines (LAG)

Library Services:

• Establish policies and procedures for making library materials accessible in a variety of formats (e.g., requests for accommodation, alternative format, OCR scans
• Provide instructions, documentation, and handouts available in an accessible digital format upon request
• Provide access, resource, and service information on a library accessibility webpage. Examples:
  • Syracuse University Libraries
  • Temple University Libraries
  • Penfield Library at SUNY Oswego
• Designate a liaison or contact within the library to provide EIT-related support
• Provide training to library staff on available assistive technology and EIT best practices. The following sites provide free or low-cost training:
  • Project ENABLE
  • AccessAbility Academy by ALA
  • Web Accessibility Tutorials by Web Accessibility Initiative
• Provide assistive technologies and equipment in computer labs, particularly in specialized spaces such as makerspaces. 
  • Many assistive technologies are available at no or low-cost
  • Consider loaning software or hardware to users
    • USB drives equipped with software, IFLA (see page 25)
    • Assistive technology kits, Saint Paul Public Library

Digitizing Content:

• Ensure documents and forms digitized or hosted by the library are accessible, or can be made accessible upon request.
  • Examples: brochures, handouts, pathfinders, online course reserves, etc.
  • Refer to Digital Content guide for help, also this site Creating Accessible Documents by University of Washington
• Perform high quality source document scans
  • Performing high quality initially reduces the need to re-scan documents.
  • Creating High Quality Scans by University of Washington
• When scans for instructional and research materials are requested (e.g., course reserves, ILL), conduct basic OCR scans (text-renderable). Purchasing a new digital document, physical book, or processing by an external vendor may be required to achieve basic accessibility.
  • It is recommended that libraries provide users with a form or contact information to submit OCR scan requests.
  • Side-by-side comparison of OCR tools
• Identify and purchase materials that are captioned, or allow and promote the use of interlibrary loan to request captioned titles if your library owns the (uncaptioned) item
  • For multimedia resources (audio, video, text, or animation) include captioning as a selection criteria
  • If a captioned copy is not available, allow users to submit requests via ILL for accessible copies
  • Guidelines for Media Resources in Academic Libraries by ACRL
  • Multimedia Accessibility FAQ by W3C
• Include transcripts for any media recordings
  • For any media recordings (podcasts, videos, other audio recordings), provide a text transcript
  • Make sure to check the accuracy of auto-generated captions
  • Transcripts on the Web by uiAccess
  • CADET (Caption And Description Editing Tool)
  • Time-based Media by W3C