Differently Able: A Review of Academic Library Websites for People With Disabilities

Cassner, Mary; Maxey-Harris, Charlene; Anaya, Toni

doi:10.1080/01639269.2011.548722

Cited by 23 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…It is imperative to state that while the developed countries are making giant strides in trying to bridge the gap between able and disabled persons with regard to policy formulation and access of information resources in academic libraries, the same cannot be said for most African countries. For instance, following the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the American Library Association became more proactive in its efforts to write and promote documents to support library services for PWDs (Cassner et al, 2011). On the other hand, a field study conducted by Babalola and Haliso (2011) reveals that, of all the countries in Africa, only South Africa has a well-developed, functional library for the visually impaired, despite the fact that there are nearly 7 million blind people on the continent.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The World Health Organization (2012: 3) describes disability as a ‘physical or mental characteristic labelled or perceived as an impairment or dysfunction’ and ‘[s]ome personal or social limitation associated with that impairment’. Moreover, Cassner et al (2011: 34) define disability as a ‘physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities of such individual; a record of such an impairment; or being regarded as having such an impairment’. The question of who is considered disabled is one that has often been clouded with ambiguity (Smart, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Globally, the percentage of persons with disability (PWDs) continues to increase, as a result of population growth, medical advancements and the ageing process (Bigdeli, 2009; Cassner et al, 2011; Khetarpal, 2014). According to statistics from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (2016: 15), ‘there are currently over 600 million persons with disabilities throughout the world, 400 million of whom live in developing countries and 80 million in Africa, constituting about 10 per cent of the total population’.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Access to library services and facilities by persons with disability: Insights from academic libraries in Ghana

Ayoung¹,

Baada

Baayel

2020

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science

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A group of the academic library’s vast untapped clientele to whom more attention is now being paid is persons with disability. Drawing from the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions’ checklist on what constitutes disability-friendly libraries, this study sought to ascertain if academic libraries in the Upper East Region of Ghana have made provisions for persons with disability. The research adopted a qualitative approach. The data used for the analysis is drawn from interviews with respondents, the majority of whom were visually or mobility-impaired, who were purposively selected from 11 tertiary institutions. The findings reveal that academic libraries in the Upper East Region have yet to implement the stipulated regulations of the ratified Persons with Disability Act of Ghana. The majority of libraries are inaccessible to persons with disability beyond the main entrance of the libraries. The biggest challenge is the absence of diverse media information for persons with visual and hearing impairments. Also, the findings reveal that library staff lack adequate knowledge of issues relating to persons with disability and their right to access information. The study highlights the challenges which hinder persons with disability from accessing quality information from libraries. The study, therefore, recommends that relevant state institutions be empowered to implement the ratified Persons with Disability Act in Ghana and increase education among stakeholders on the need to improve access to information for persons with disability. Also, there should be increased investment and allocation of funds to libraries to provide for the information needs of persons with disability.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Access to library services and facilities by persons with disability: Insights from academic libraries in Ghana

Ayoung¹,

Baada

Baayel

2020

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science

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“…Finally, the adoption of campus-wide policies and standards for institutional webpages has greatly contributed to the development of web pages accessible to all. Similarly, in their article "Differently Able" published in 2011, Cassner et al found that the "large majority of ARL libraries (88%) [had] a web page for people with disabilities" (Cassner, Maxey-Harris and Anaya 2011). While these two recent works examine the front-end usability of academic library websites and making information accessible, we found that little has been written about the need to make informationcreation and publishing tools such as OJS more accessible and usable for people with disabilities on the back end.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making journals accessible front & back: examining open journal systems at CSU Northridge

Borchard

Biondo

Kutay

et al. 2015

OCLC Systems &Amp; Services: International Digital Library Perspectives

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Purpose – This study aims to examine Public Knowledge Project (PKP) Open Journal Systems (OJS) for its overall web accessibility and compliance with the Federal Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility and Compliance Act, also known as Section 508. Design/methodology/approach – Twenty-one individual web pages in the CSUN test instance of PKP’s OJS version 2.4.0 used in three back-end journal development user roles were examined using three web-accessibility tools (WAVE, Fangs, Functional Accessibility Evaluator). Errors in accessibility were then logged and mapped to specific Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) criteria. Findings – In all, 202 accessibility errors were reported across the 21 OJS pages selected for testing. Because of this, the OJS cannot be efficiently utilized by assistive technologies and therefore does not pass the minimal level of acceptability as described in the WCAG 2.0. However, the authors found that the types of errors reported in this study could be simply and effectively remedied. Research limitations/implications – Further studies will need to corroborate, on a larger scale, the problems of accessibility found in the specific pages. Only three user roles were examined; other roles will need to be analyzed for their own problems with accessibility. Finally, although specific errors were noted, most can be easily fixed. Practical implications – There is an important need for accessible software design. In the case of CSUN, one of the campus partners will be better served by improving the web accessibility of the authors’ online open access journals. Originality/value – Although many studies and analyses of Section 508 compliance of front-facing web resources have been conducted, very few appear to address the back-end of such tools. This is the first to examine what problems in accessibility journal users with disabilities might encounter as OJS system administrators, journal managers or journal editors.

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“…Therefore, accessibility could be seen as a way of identifying and dealing with sources of impediments, either personal or environmental, in human computer interaction. Most studies conducted regarding the accessibility of digital library services were related to library websites [29], [30]. Many of them used automatic testing tools to check conformance of library websites to WCAG guidelines [9], [29].…”

Section: Accessibility Of Resource Discovery Toolsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Case for Adaptation to Enhance Usability and Accessibility of Library Resource Discovery Tools

Beyene

Ferati

2017

Universal Access in Human–Computer Interaction. Design and Development Approaches and Methods

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Abstract. Library resource discovery tools (RDTs) are the latest generation of library catalogs that enable searching across disparate databases and repositories from a single search box. Although such "Google-like" experience has been applauded as a benefit for library users, there still exist usability and accessibility problems related to the diversity of user goals, needs, and preferences. To better understand these problems, we conducted an extensive literature review and in this process, we initially grouped issues into three categories: interface, resource description, and navigation. Based on these categories, we propose adaptation as an alternative approach to enhance the usability and accessibility of RDTs. The adaptations could be conducted on three levels pertaining to categories of issues found, namely: interface, information, and navigation level. The goal of this paper is to suggest how the process of adaptation could be considered to improve usability and accessibility of RDTs.

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Differently Able: A Review of Academic Library Websites for People With Disabilities

Cited by 23 publications

References 10 publications

Access to library services and facilities by persons with disability: Insights from academic libraries in Ghana

Access to library services and facilities by persons with disability: Insights from academic libraries in Ghana

Making journals accessible front & back: examining open journal systems at CSU Northridge

A Case for Adaptation to Enhance Usability and Accessibility of Library Resource Discovery Tools

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