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U Design

   ALA Diversity Fair
   June 21, 2003
   Toronto, Ontario






Collaborative University Libraries Diversity Committee and Universal Design Team (UDesign)

Accessibility Initiative
Penn State University Libraries Diversity Committee

Contact: Robert Alan (roa1@psulias.psu.edu)

Background
  • University Office of Disability Services reports increasing number of students with disabilities will require some special assistance
  • Aging community that can often benefit from assistive technology
    • Aging faculty and staff
    • Aging Pennsylvania population as average age only exceeded by Florida

Accessibility Initiative

During 2002/2003 the University Libraries Diversity Committee along with the Universal Design (UDesign) teamworked to influence accessibility improvements to public workstations

Goal: Identify and correct accessibility issues to improve the University Libraries Web presence in terms of accessibility
Key components

The University's Commitment to Individuals with Disabilities


"The Pennsylvania State University encourages academically qualified students with disabilities to achieve full participation and integration of its educational programs. It is Penn State's policy not to discriminate against qualified persons with disabilities in its admissions policies and procedures or its educational programs, services, and activities. Achieving full participation and integration of individuals with disabilities requires the cooperative efforts of all departments, offices and personnel of the University. To this end, the University will continue to strive to achieve excellence in its services and to assure that its services are delivered equitably and efficiently to all of its members."

University Libraries Commitment to Diversity

"The University Libraries provides The Pennsylvania State University communities with equitable access to all of its information resources and services. This access is guaranteed without regard to race, ethnicity, language, age, religion or spiritual beliefs, health, gender, sexual orientation, physical capabilities, or geographic origin." - excerpted from University Libraries Definition of Diversity
The University Libraries consistently strive to remain at the forefront of unprecedented diversity initiatives and to be a leader in Web accessibility

Cooperation: Stakeholders

University Libraries Diversity Committee
University Libraries Universal Design (UDesign team)
University Libraries Services for Persons with Disabilities
University Office of Disability Services
Penn State community

Role of University Libraries Diversity Committee

  • Strong advocate for library users with disabilities
  • Identify issues that impact accessibility and communicate such to Library Administration
  • Influence positive outcomes that enhance accessibility to resources and facilities
  • Work with other campus and library groups and units to make it happen!!!

Support

  • Strong commitment from University Libraries to improve Web accessibility by building into Web redesign plan
  • Funding and time for developer training and software tools
  • Funding for technology, software and research
Research

Ongoing research study to assess accessibility and usability of the library's Website to people with disabilities.

  • Purpose: to more fully understand how library users with disabilities access these Web resources and their level of success in navigating to and manipulating the Web pages. We wish to identify problems that are encountered, as well as gain insight into how we might improve the site to better serve the needs of this user group.
  • Users with disabilities recruited to complete a series of tasks using the library's Website using assistive technology (as needed)
  • The tasks include finding a book in the CAT by title and navigating to various pages within the library Web site. Vendor Evaluation
  • Development specific requirements based on objective assessment of users' needs

Vendor Evaluations

  • Benchmark with other institutions
  • Thoroughly test prior to acceptance
  • Important to have persons with disabilities test and provide feedback
  • Provide vendor with feedback and negotiate hardware/software enhancements

Service: Hardware

  • Large Monitor added to each service location
  • Assistive workstations provided in Library Services for Persons with Disabilities
    • Goal - provision of assistive workstation in each service location
      Outcome - increased independence and convenience for library users

Service: Software

  • Windows Accessibility features enabled on all public workstations
  • Assistive technology (e.g., JAWS, Zoom Text, Dragon Naturally Speaking, etc.) provided in Library Services for People with Disabilities
    • Goal - provision of assistive software on a workstation in each service location
    • Outcome - increased independence and convenience for library users

Service: Instruction & Outreach

  • Policy established to include ADA accommodations in bibliographic instruction planning checklist
  • Increased awareness of resources and procedure for ADA accommodations, etc. for library employees
  • Training provided by Instructional Programs for library employees on ADA accommodations
  • Follow-up study in one year to determine if any additional requests made
    Outreach- presented a pre-conference workshop on accessible design at Penn State Web 2003 conference.

Service: Awareness

Increased awareness/educated employees on issues and solutions better service to all.

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Contact

Email:
Diversity_core


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