EVALUATING LIBRARY RESOURCES FOR

ACCESSIBILITY

Nina McHale

Arapahoe Library District

milehighbrarian.net

The Library Accessibility Problem, 1 of 2 Library web sites are complex blends of

locally created content and online (often hosted) tools

Those tools are created and managed by different entities, internal and external to the library

Library vendors are notoriously unsupportive of/non-compliant with Section 508/WCAGTatomir and Durrance: 78% of databases

“marginally inaccessible” or “inaccessible”

The Library Accessibility Problem, 2 of 2 Library web sites tend to be homegrown Library web masters tend to be self-

taught Few (if any?!) members of the library

staff have adequate web accessibility knowledge

Inaccessible sites-not just library web sites- can look and function fine to sighted users

Our Agenda

(Free!) Accessibility Testing Tools Putting Library Resources to the Test Tips for Fixing Problems

(Free!) Accessibility Testing Tools ChromeShades (Chrome) Web Accessibility Toolbar (Internet

Explorer) Fangs (Firefox) WebAIM WAVE

Site (browser independent)Toolbar (Firefox)

ChromeShades (Google Chrome) https://chrome.google.com/webstore/ Screen reader emulator Shows an approximation of what a

screen reader would say ChromeVox: a screen reader ChromeVis: a screen magnifier

Web Accessibility Toolbar (Internet Explorer)

http://www.visionaustralia.org.au/ais/toolbar/

Not so much an integrated a browser tool as the others; more a suite of useful tools collected into a bookmarks bar

Fangs (Firefox Plug-In)http://sourceforge.net/projects/fangs/Provides a transcript of a screen reader’s

output (examples to follow)Future of development uncertain, but current

version works with Firefox 9.0.1Install plug-in, then restart FirefoxTo run in Firefox:

○ Browse to the page to evaluate;○ Select “Tools,” then “Fangs”

WebAIM WAVE (Site and Firefox Plug-In) Site: http://wave.webaim.org/

Browse to site and:○ Enter URL, OR○ Upload code to analyze

Firefox Plug-In:Install plug-in, then restart Firefox;Select “Tools,” then “WAVE” for optionsBenefit: not third-party serverIndex to icons: http://wave.webaim.org/icons

Sample Tests

Library catalog (III Millennium) LibGuides (SpringShare)

For each of these: Screen capture Fangs and WebAIM tests Summary of issues revealed

Library Catalog

Arapahoe Library District:http://aspen.ald.lib.co.us/

Innovative Interfaces, Inc., Millennium A “hybrid” library resource: vendor-

created, but customized locally by library systems staff

Issues Revealed, III’s Millennium

Order of content not logical or intuitively structured as a screen reader would render it (Fangs output)

Image file name renders as gibberish (Fangs output)

Alt text for images missing for library logo and sculpture pictures (WebAIM output)

Search (HTML form) not coded properly (WebAIM output)

LibGuides

Auraria Library English 090 Guide:http://guides.auraria.edu/ccdenglish090

SpringShare A specialized library CMS for creating

and organizing guide content

Features Revealed, SpiringShare’s LibGuides Skip navigation links are present (Fangs

output) “Alternate Page” for screen reader users

is present (Fangs output) HTML headings (h1-h6) are used to

structure the page (Fangs output) Alternative text is present for all but one

image (WebAIM output)

Caveat:

Even resources that pass the tests these tools and conform Section 508 and/or WCAG 2.0 may still have accessibility issues

Testing with screen reader software is the best way to test thoroughly

Tips: What Can We Do?

Content Creators Acquisitions Web Services

For Library Content Creators, 1 of 2…

Alternative textSection 508 §1194.22 paragraph a; WCAG

2.0 1.1.1Provide text descriptions for non-text

elements, i.e., imagesEnforce inclusion of alt text with software

features (Dreamweaver, Drupal)Learn to write quality alternative text:

○ http://webaim.org/techniques/alttext/

For Library Content Creators,2 of 2…

CaptionsSection 508 §1194.22 paragraph b; WCAG

2.0 1.2Provide transcripts for video-only and audio-

only contentDigital learning objects such as tutorials,

online orientations, videos, etc., should all have equivalents for blind and deaf users

Enforce use of captions with software features (Camtasia, Captivate)

For Acquisitions…

Make accessibility evaluation part of the purchase evaluation process

Pay close attention to the accessibility of discovery layer tools when making a decision

Communicate to library vendors the importance of accessibility to librarians and library users

For Web Services, 1 of 2…

Make accessibility part of the design and development process It’s much more difficult to retrofit a site than develop an

accessible site to begin with

Educate yourself and colleagues about web accessibility as it relates to their job requirements

Use freely-available tools to assess accessibility of locally-created and purchased products

For Web Services, 2 of 2…

Conduct usability testing with users with disabilitiesContact community disability resources

Become familiar with and test your sites with screen reader software:NVDA (open source, for Windows):

http://www.nvda-project.org/VoiceOver: native to OS X (10.4+) for Mac

users

A Final Thought

“Sometimes I think sighted people have handicaps of their own. Vision can be very deceptive.”

-Pat Laing, blind computer programmer

Questions? Comments?

@ninermac

milehighbrarian.net

Column: “All Access,”

Journal of Web Librarianship