Web accessibility in the institutional repository crafting user centered submission policies
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The document discusses improving web accessibility in the Indiana University institutional repository, emphasizing the need for user-centered submission policies. An accessibility audit revealed various short-term and long-term issues, leading to the development of new submission guidelines that encourage authors to deposit accessible documents. Following the implementation of these guidelines, there has been a 38% increase in the accessibility of uploaded files, with plans for further assessments and developments in accessibility practices.
Web accessibility in the institutional repository crafting user centered submission policies
- 1. Web Accessibility in the Institutional Repository: Crafting User-Centered Submission Policies Margaret McLaughlin and Jenny Hoops
- 2. Background
- 3. Accessibility Initiative @ Indiana University ● Upper level administrative decision, campus-wide ● Asked to audit our department (Scholarly Communication), and report findings to our Libraries UX team ● No extra resources or funding were provided
- 4. Accessibility and Institutional Repositories ● Many IRs were not made with accessibility in mind ● Levels of accessibility in IRs vary widely across institutions ● Different approaches to making IRs more accessible
- 6. Accessibility Audit Websites audited: ● Public informational website ● Internal wiki pages ● Journal publishing platform ● Two open access repositories ● Blog, WordPress site ● LibGuides created by our department Tools used: ● WAVE ● FAE ● Google Lighthouse
- 7. Department Audit Results Short-term issues: ● Alt-text ● Empty links ● Forms and labels ● Structuring webpages and metadata ● Coloring and shading Long-term issues: ● University-level website/branding issues ● A large majority of content in the repository
- 8. IUScholarWorks Overview ● Open access institutional repository ● Created around 2007 ● Runs on DSpace software ● No initial accessibility policies
- 9. Tackling the Broader Issues and the IR ● Peer assessment ● What does our dedication to “open access” entail? ● What can we control as a department, or need to request as an institutional change? ● What sustainable changes can we make with current resources?
- 10. IR Accessibility Policy Spectrum
- 11. Plan of Action
- 12. IUScholarWorks: Submission Process Three-step process for all authors to submit individual files to IUScholarWorks: ● Check your rights: Read our copyright and licensing page. ● Contact IUSW: Email iusw@indiana.edu for authorization to deposit in the collection fo your choice. ● Submit your work: Follow the submission guide.
- 13. Updating the Submission Guide GOAL: To develop new submission guidelines that emphasize the importance of depositing accessible documents. ● Recommendation > Requirement ○ Did not want to discourage anybody from submitting or overwhelm submitters ● Provide quick guidelines on making the most commonly submitted file types accessible ● Encourages user to consider accessibility before final upload
- 14. Creating “Quick Fixes” ● Researched other IRs and general university accessibility guidelines ○ University of Washington’s IT Accessibility Checklist & Tutorial ● Identified best practices ○ Use headings/structural tags ○ Add alternative text ○ Exporting from word to PDF to preserve accessibility ○ Other tips ■ Document language, hyperlinks, lists ● Incorporated into submission guide
- 15. New Submission Guide ● Accessibility guidelines placed between Step 2 (Describe) and Step 3 (Upload) ● Made the new document accessible ○ Help encourage users to submit who weren’t able to before ● Original Submission Guide vs Updated Submission Guide
- 16. Looking Forward
- 17. Results ● Six months since new submission guide was made public ● New user-deposited PDF and Word documents have showed much higher accessibility rates ○ 38% increase in accessible files according to a random sample from both time periods ● Plan to do more thorough, formal assessment at the end of the year, including our other repositories
- 18. Revisiting the IR Accessibility Spectrum
- 19. Future Developments ● Accessibility guidelines for other file formats ○ New open data repository ○ Deposits for other repository are done by staff/faculty ● More sustainable ○ With recent resource limitations, this is essential to consider ● Approaching our repository back content ○ Hiring student workers, train to make most popular PDFs accessible ○ Work with Library Technologies to develop accessibility checker for new repository
- 20. Questions?
- 21. Contact Us iusw@indiana.edu Resource List: https://bit.ly/iunasig ● Template for an Accessibility Audit using free, openly available software ● Original IUScholarWorks submission guide ● Updated IUScholarWorks submission guide with accessibility guidelines ● The extracted “Quick Fixes” accessibility guidelines