Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Accessibility Resources

Banks, M. (2017, June 1). Library websites for all: Improving the experience for patrons with visual disabilities. American Libraries. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2017/06/01/library-websites-accessibility/

Pionke, J.J. (2020). Library employee views of disability and accessibility. Journal of Library Administration, 60(2), 120-145. https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2019.1704560

WebJunction. (2019, July 18). Prioritizing accessibility and disability inclusion at your library. https://www.webjunction.org/news/webjunction/prioritizing-accessibility.html

Presenters Travis Goode (Senior Librarian, University of Texas at Dallas) and Ron Figueroa (Resource Sharing Manager, Syracuse University) will share detail on rights to reproduce copyrighted materials for the blind or other people with disabilities.

Speakers discuss Special Exemptions, Fair Use, and the Marrakesh Treaty with the goal of empowering your library with knowledge of the Law to expand accessibility services to your patrons. The session will also include updates on efforts at Syracuse University and University of Texas at Dallas to provide accessible reformatted texts for patrons in need of this service, plus practical information about integration of ILLiad and interlibrary loan/document delivery procedures, the challenges of reformatting text, and tips about tools software options for providing materials in alternative formats. They will also discuss SHARES Executive Group’s recent progress on the consortium’s accessibility-related activities, which include building an annotated set of freely-available resources for practitioners interested in making ILL materials accessible.

Moderated by Dennis Massie (Senior Program Officer, OCLC).

Accessibility issues are crucial to the ability of students with disabilities of all types to fully receive a higher education. In the digital era, this means issues big and small -- from the usability of an LMS to a professor's choices on a syllabus.
This webcast will explore the approaches colleges and universities are taking and some of the tough questions institutions are facing to serve this student population. Some of the topics addressed in this webcast include: High-tech instructional materials and how they impact students with disabilities; Creating formal policies for digital accessibility; Making course content available to all students; Inclusive teaching strategies to use in the classroom.

#CripLib is a hashtag used when discussing the intersection of disability and libraries, predominantly by library and archives workers with disabilities. It is written #CripLib (with capitals) for screen reader accessibility.

#CripLib chats occur each month on a topic related to working in LIS professions while living with disability. Chats are on the third Tuesday of each month.

Sign up for the email list for ASERL members interested in Accessibility issues in research libraries.

"This section focuses on best practices to ensure the accessibility of self-created educational materials, including documents, presentations, videos, mathematical notation and social media posts."

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an educational movement focused on changing our instructional practices to reach the maximum number of students regardless of ability, disability, age, gender, or cultural and linguistic background. Applying UDL to library instruction means designing instruction that accounts for everyone's abilities and differences. Library instruction needs to be presented and accessed in several formats, to be adjustable to the various styles of students, and to limit barriers for all learners. Designing for accessibility benefits everyone, not just those with disabilities.
Incorporating UDL means committing to making sure library instruction is available to all students. Every library instruction can benefit from incorporating aspects of UDL. It's an ongoing process, and doing something is better than doing nothing.

"Learn the very basics about accessible educational materials and accessible technologies, then dive deeper in our other resources throughout the site."

The National Center on Accessible Educational Materials (AEM) provides information about how to make educational materials more accessible using the POUR (Percievable, Operable, Understandable, Robust) method.

"Images must have text alternatives that describe the information or function represented by them. This ensures that images can be used by people with various disabilities. This tutorial demonstrates how to provide appropriate text alternatives based on the purpose of the image"

Guidance on how to create websites that meet WCAG

"WAVE is a suite of evaluation tools that helps authors make their web content more accessible to individuals with disabilities. WAVE can identify many accessibility and Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG) errors, but also facilitates human evaluation of web content. Our philosophy is to foc"us on issues that we know impact end users, facilitate human evaluation, and to educate about web accessibility.

"Explore the story of a unique young woman who has overcome tremendous learning challenges to become a freshman at Harvard."

What is the architecture of inclusion?

How do buildings, pathways, and design elements create inclusive spaces?

What can mapping reveal about the overlaps and intersections of inclusive campus spaces?

Mapping Access is a participatory mapping and data visualization project documenting the features of the campus built environment that facilitate inclusion. Through digital maps, Map-a-thon events, community conversations, photography, and film, the project explores mapping as a process of social transformation.

The project draws on methods and theories from Disability Justice, the environmental humanities, intersectionality, and critical GIS.

Mapping Access engages users as experts in the design process to generate surveys, collect data, create new mapping methods, and build a commitment toward broad accessibility. Typical approaches to accessibility focus on issues of code compliance and checklists of standards. Instead, this project draws upon the analytic frameworks of intersectionality and disability justice, as well as Universal Design methodology, to craft alternative standards for meaningful access.