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Accessibility of digital special collections using screen readers

Accessibility of digital special collections using screen readers Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discover whether digitized materials from special collections libraries can be accessed using screen reader technology.Design/methodology/approach – The researchers looked at 69 US academic library web sites from the ARL in 2011 to determine whether textual materials sampled from their digitized special collections were readable with screen reader technology.Findings – The researchers found that 42 percent of the sampled digital collection items are screen‐readable, while 58 percent are not readable.Research limitations/implications – Screen readers are not evaluated against one another for effectiveness with digital collections. Library web site pathways to digital special collections were not evaluated with screen readers.Originality/value – This is the first study to examine the accessibility of digitized special collections materials to persons using a screen reader. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Library Hi Tech Emerald Publishing

Accessibility of digital special collections using screen readers

Library Hi Tech , Volume 30 (3): 15 – Aug 31, 2012

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References (34)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0737-8831
DOI
10.1108/07378831211266609
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discover whether digitized materials from special collections libraries can be accessed using screen reader technology.Design/methodology/approach – The researchers looked at 69 US academic library web sites from the ARL in 2011 to determine whether textual materials sampled from their digitized special collections were readable with screen reader technology.Findings – The researchers found that 42 percent of the sampled digital collection items are screen‐readable, while 58 percent are not readable.Research limitations/implications – Screen readers are not evaluated against one another for effectiveness with digital collections. Library web site pathways to digital special collections were not evaluated with screen readers.Originality/value – This is the first study to examine the accessibility of digitized special collections materials to persons using a screen reader.

Journal

Library Hi TechEmerald Publishing

Published: Aug 31, 2012

Keywords: Accessibility; Disabilities; Screen readers; Digital collections; Special collections; Manuscripts; University libraries; Digital libraries

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