Gopal Dutta - Collaboration is the key: working as part of a team to organise an audit of ebooks for accessibility
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The document summarizes a presentation about collaborating on an audit of ebook accessibility. Key points: - A team from several universities worked together to audit the accessibility of ebooks on 44 platforms from 65 publishers and 280 ebooks. - Ebooks can potentially be more accessible than print for those with impairments, but many current ebooks have issues like lack of text reflow or screen reader compatibility. - The audit examined questions like available formats, text reflow ability, screen reader compatibility, and adherence to accessibility guidelines. - The results will help libraries ensure resources are accessible as required and improve usability for all readers. Conducting the audit required significant coordination between the distributed team members.
Gopal Dutta - Collaboration is the key: working as part of a team to organise an audit of ebooks for accessibility
- 1. “Collaboration is the key: Working as part of a team to organise an audit of ebooks for accessibility” Gopal Dutta Secondary education subject librarian and Digital library service Manchester Metropolitan University
- 2. Today’s itinerary • My background: examples, usability and accessibility overlap • What is the audit and why should we care • Some context: comparing the reading process for print and ebooks • The team and how we got together • Some problems: WCAG and Section 508 compliance
- 3. My background • “The wrong place at the wrong time”? Leeds Beckett experience (2013 – 2015) • 2015 – present: Manchester Metropolitan University and National joint consortia e-books sub-group rep for NoWAL • Not an accessibility expert!
- 5. An example query “…experiencing some problems having access…”
- 6. An example answer “…experiencing some problems having access…”
- 7. An example answer “…experiencing some problems having access…” Which browser? Are you on or off campus? Are you accessing directly via the platform or via our catalogue? Screenshots please
- 9. Questions about accessibility “…Accessible versions (PDFs)” “…I did find a version of this on moodle but it was incomplete…” “…someone told me…” “Sorry…”
- 10. Questions about accessibility “…Accessible versions (PDFs)” “…I did find a version of this on moodle but it was incomplete… “…someone told me…”
- 11. Questions about accessibility “…preview expired…” “…would not let me access it again…” “…error message…”
- 12. So what is the accessibility audit? • https://sites.google.com/site/ebookaudit2016/ • Please go and have a look and let us know what you think • ebookaudithelp@gmail.com • 33 universities and 5 suppliers (suppliers were invited to audit their own platforms). In total 44 platforms were tested, covering 65 publishers with nearly 280 ebooks tested
- 13. Some sample questions • What formats are available? • Does text reflow? • Can you use a screen reader? • Are there any accessibility guidelines?
- 16. So why does it matter? • DSA changes – more pressure on HEIs to buy resources that are accessible • Alt formats are expensive and time-consuming • It’s our job! (as librarians) • There isn’t a single, wide-ranging audit (but there are precursors)
- 17. Some context: print vs ebook • This is how “people” read print books: OPAC check
- 18. Some context: print vs ebook • This is how “people” read print books: OPAC check Find book on shelves
- 19. Some context: print vs ebook • This is how “people” read print books: OPAC check Find book on shelves Read book
- 20. Some context: print vs ebook • This is how “people” read print books: OPAC check Find book on shelves Read book Discovery Reservation system
- 21. Some context: print vs ebook • This is how “people” read print books: OPAC check Find book on shelves Read book Discovery Reservation System Library support at any point in the process
- 22. Some context: print vs ebook • This is how “people” read print books: OPAC check Find book on shelves Read book Discovery Reservation System Library support at any point in the process
- 23. Some context: print vs ebook • In terms of accessibility, for readers with a print impairment, ebooks should be “better” • But…
- 24. Ebooks… • This is how “people” read ebooks: Device
- 25. Ebooks… • This is how “people” read ebooks: Device Browser
- 26. Ebooks… • This is how “people” read ebooks: Device Browser Entry point
- 27. Ebooks… • This is how “people” read ebooks: Device Browser Entry point Read ebook
- 28. Ebooks… • This is how “people” read ebooks: Device Browser Entry point Read ebook PC / Mac Chrome / IE OPAC Read online Desktop / Mobile Safari Discovery system Download
- 29. Ebooks… • This is how “people” read ebooks: Device Browser Entry point Read ebook PC / Mac Chrome / IE OPAC Read online Desktop / Mobile Safari Discovery system Download Library support at any point in the process
- 30. Ebooks… • This is how “people” read ebooks: Device Browser Entry point Read ebook PC / Mac Chrome / IE OPAC Read online Desktop / Mobile Safari Discovery system Download Library support at any point in the process
- 31. Accessibility vs Usability (1) • All the information: https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/usable • They overlap but are not quite the same: • “Accessibility addresses discriminatory aspects related to equivalent user experience for people with disabilities, including people with age-related impairments. For the web, accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with websites and tools, and that they can contribute equally without barriers”.
- 32. Accessibility vs Usability (2) • “Usability and user experience design is about designing products to be effective, efficient, and satisfying. Specifically, ISO defines usability as the “extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals effectively, efficiently and with satisfaction in a specified context of use" (in ISO 9241-11)”. • Key point: • “While accessibility focuses on people with disabilities, many accessibility requirements also improve usability for everyone”.
- 33. • Sue Smith: “Of course if the project results in improvements in accessibility of eBooks that that should benefit everyone – just like a ramp initially intended for wheelchair users also benefits those with book trolleys.” (personal correspondence, 8th December 2016) Accessibility vs Usability (3)
- 35. Joint Consortia (Monographs) eBook Sub - Group LUPC SUPCNEYALMUAL NoWAL Group membership MARC record quality/supply Usage data: standards and automation Consistency and reliability of purchased content/models available Basic User information /assistance provided on the interface itself Variety of purchasing models, model descriptions and DRM/PDA restrictions Accessibility features Joint consortia diagram Diagram by Jane Cooke
- 36. The e-book audit team (Clockwise from top left) Alistair McNaught (JISC) Sue Smith (Leeds Beckett) Ben Watson (Kent) Jamie Phillips (Leeds Beckett) Jane Cooke (Liverpool) Huw Alexander (SAGE) Ruth MacMullen (York St John) Vicky Dobson (Leeds Beckett)
- 37. August 2015: Joint consortia meeting October 2015: Lis-accessibility JISC list is set up Jan 2016: Pilot testing at University of Liverpool Jan 2016: Discussion on list about database accessibility March 2016: Contact with Alistair McNaught May 2016: Agree to join forces Timeline (1)
- 38. June 2016: NoWAL training day at Liverpool July 2016: Audit launch on lis-accessibility list November 2016: Beta results site launched December 2016: Askews release accessibility statement Timeline (2) February 2017: Elsevier engagement / critique
- 39. Some issues • WCAG 2.0 / Section 508: audit questions and results don’t map to these standards but are pragmatic tool • A lot of library staff unfamiliar with using library e-books? • Assistive technologies: TTS / screenreaders • Time: took a long time to collate feedback, concern that platforms would update, process will need to be refined / repeated • Communication: largely email, some skype, some of the group have not met one another face to face! appear.in very good for conference calls
- 40. Any questions?
Editor's Notes
- #2: Sorry for the boring title. Also sorry for my long job title – basically I’m a drone librarian, mainly helping students in a variety of contexts: buying resources, teaching them how to use them, via organised IL sessions. But also day to day management of eresources, including ebooks. I just want to stress that nowhere in my job title do you see the words accessibility or disability or inclusion. So I want to make clear that I’m not an accessibility expert! I’m not sure whether I’m an expert at anything to be honest…
- #8: Does get a lot more complicated…
- #9: Simple request for alt formats
- #10: It could be another student, his disability advisor, someone else
- #11: It could be another student, his disability advisor, someone else
- #12: It then turns into a usability query similar to the first example So we get a range of queries and quite often the answers we give can overlap with one another.
- #13: Ask if anyone has already heard about it? Did anyone participate?
- #14: Flesh this out a bit…
- #17: The DSA – explain Alistair’s quote? Ebooks deliver books Through technologies That are designed to protect the intellectual property and business model But have the unintended side affect of making access difficult As librarians, our job is to facilitate access to knowledge. So we need to understand what the barriers are and how to guide users through them, on the one hand. On the other, we need to gently coach our suppliers as to the negative effects of the barriers. Without dismissing the need for them. Explain sterling work of others: Geri, Sarah
- #18: Now this is a very simple flow diagram and what I’m trying to do is explain the way I see ebooks as different to print books, in terms of how they are read. I’ve put “people” in inverted commas cos it refers to a wide variety of different learners: librarians and assistants, academic staff, students, who are not really an homogenous group. So it’s like a disclaimer. So the first thing is that the person would need to find the book. And of course we are already making an assumption that they know what they are looking for, which is a big assumption! Also, I just want to point out here that with this next section, I’m not talking about accessibility anyomore, what I’m trying to do is just illustrate the differences between print and ebook, for any reader, regardless of whether they have an accessibility need.
- #19: After that, they’ll have to go and find the book on the shelves, which might not be very simple at all!!
- #20: And then they can read the book.
- #21: Now, there might be a few variations of this. So, for example, you might find the book using the library discovery system rather than the catalogue. Or you might google it. And you might place a reservation, in which case, library staff will go and get the book for you. But, generally speaking, there’s not a lot of complexity.
- #22: And of course, library support is available at all stages – people can ask for help at the helpdesk, they can phone / email / chat with us etc.
- #23: The purple box represents the library “zone of control” – by and large, for print books, we as librarians and liberary staff, have a good degree of control over the whole process. So, for example, if students are looking for books, they can use the OPACs, and if they are not working, we can fix them I just want t
- #24: Electronic resources are fundamentally more accessible than their print equivalents as they can be easily manipulated to support different learning styles.
- #25: So what if we thought about how people access and read ebooks? This is connected to my earlier slides with examples of some of our queries
- #26: So what if we thought about how people access and read ebooks? Library control is far less
- #27: So what if we thought about how people access and read ebooks? Library control is far less
- #28: So what if we thought about how people access and read ebooks? Library control is far less
- #29: So what if we thought about how people access and read ebooks? Library control is far less
- #30: So what if we thought about how people access and read ebooks? Library control is far less
- #31: Library control is far less complete with ebooks. And it’s this gap which makes something like the accessibility audit really important. We can provide help, advice and training for our staff and users, but unfortunately it only goes so far.
- #32: I’m now going to talk a little about how accessibility and usability are different
- #33: ISO = international standards association
- #34: This is a quote from Sue who is a member of the audit team
- #35: And here’s a photo to illustrate what we mean – in this case, the ramp is being used by someone for convenience, without him “needing” to use it. The benefit is there for everyone.
- #37: Alistair McNaught (JISC) is an accessibility and inclusion specialist with a long engagement in the Publishers Association Accessibility Action Group. Sue Smith, Vicky Dobson and Jamie Phillips (Leeds Beckett University) bring library expertise, direct experience with disabled students, project management skills and expertise in Excel spreadsheets. Ben Watson is from a library background but now manages an institution-wide accessibility project for the university. University of Liverpool - Jane Cooke is Head of Content, Collections and Discovery at the University of Liverpool. York St John University - Ruth MacMullen is a Copyright and Licences Officer with a special interest in disability issues. Ruth set up the LIS-Accessibility JiscMail list. Gopal Dutta (Manchester Metropolitan University) is a library specialist with links to procurement projects.
- #38: Notion of top-down and bottom-up approaches happening at the same time August 2015: Meet Jane Cooke; we choose accessibility as NoWAL area Look at work done by Sarah George at Bradford October 2015: Ruth actual admin of list? List details: Currently over 180 members including publishers Discussion of accessibility and accessible resource provision in libraries Members are involved in the procurement and creation of accessible formats Jan 2016: Become aware of complexity (questions / hardware / browser / accessibility software ) Awareness of training Jan 2016: Discussion on list about setting up a crowd-source audit March 2016: Jane tells me about his accessibility and ebooks article on JISC site Alistair tells me about lis-accessibility group and JISC list. Alistair as neutral cos JISC not uni May 2016 Less confusion for librarians. More weight if it is regional consortium as well as JISC list
- #39: June 2016: Sarah George, James Scholes, Alistair McNaught, Sue Smith as speakers Participants worked through audit, feedback collected July 2016: Questions to ebookaudithelp@gmail.com Further calls to plug gaps November 2016: Ben Watson speaking at ALISS (Association of Librarians and Information Professionals in the Social Sciences) UKSG webinar This teachmeet December: they acknowledge our audit. Mission accomplished?