May 19, 2021

Libraries Accessibility Update 2020-2021

To recognize Global Accessibility Awareness Day, May 20, 2021, we wanted to highlight some of the accessibility projects and improvements the University of Washington Libraries has made in the past year. From testing to training, we made a lot of progress in 2020. The pandemic has brought to light many accessibility issues that we can ameliorate.

• E-Resource Testing: The UW Libraries has completed a project to test 598 subscribed databases for basic accessibility. We tested the resources to see if we could perform a search, select a search result, and interact with the search result all using only the keyboard. This workflow-based testing does not find all accessibility issues but does highlight where major problems occur. We found that 538 (90%) of resources passed the testing. We now move into a second phase where we will contact those vendors whose products did not pass our testing to ask about timelines for improvement. We also plan to retest each resource annually to keep up with interface changes over time. This work has helped us identify where work remains to be done to improve the accessibility of all products offered by the libraries.

• Library Staff Training Opportunities: 
  • Quick Workshops: In 2020-2021, we developed a “quick workshop” format to support colleagues as they learn and develop skills to improve accessibility in their day-to-day work. We  successfully hosted eight quick workshops with positive feedback from attendees. We plan to continue providing this short-format training in the future. Workshops are presented in two styles:

• • • Quick Tips, a format where members of Accessibility Working Group training subcommittee provide context and background to the workshop topic and lead participants through a short demonstration of skills and tools
    • Quick Conversations, an open conversation format where facilitators provide prompts based on the workshop topic and ask participants to engage in open discussion and Q&A for the majority of the session
    • Quick workshops are 30-minute sessions supplemented with a topic-specific job aid (called a cheat sheet for workshop purposes) and a variety of resource links for self-directed learners and users engaging in the content asynchronously. Workshop topics have included:
      • Creating accessible emails, documents and presentations
      • Video captioning
      • Accessible social media
      • Hosting accessible online instruction sessions, research consultations and events and programming
      • Creating and sustaining accessible research guides

• Study location improvements:
  • Accessibility Toolkits: The AWG received a Friends of the Libraries award to create accessibility toolkits. These toolkits will be available in all branch locations once they reopen, including Tacoma and Bothell. The kits include trackball mice, pocket hearing loops, 2x magnification bars, lapboards, and other supports. We hope to add more items to the tool kits in the future.
  • Increased the number of powered height adjustable workstations by 33%, with another 17 to be added by the start of fall 2021.

• The Accessibility and Data Visualization workshop was the #4 post for faculty in the UW INSIDER last month! 
  • Data visualization best practices and tools do not always discuss accessibility, which can exclude many groups of people. We responded to a need for accessibility and data visualization support by hosting two workshops through the Open Scholarship Commons, guided by our values of accessibility, equity, and inclusion. The workshops consisted of both conceptual material and a practice Excel workbook for attendees to follow along and make a visualization more accessible in the moment. The workshops were received well and had 100 attendees overall.

• Video captioning: In 2020-2021 We designed and implemented a workflow for the creation of high-quality closed captions for online streaming videos of archival Special Collections material. This process is built around a combination of automated transcription combined with several layers of human quality control and description. It utilizes existing resources (the Microsoft Stream application) and has proven an effective model for an internal workflow designed to enhance accessibility of archival materials. As of writing, we have completed closed captions for over 165 videos, including all videos that were identified as the highest use across both our CONTENTdm and Internet Archive access points.

• Cross-campus collaboration: A librarian at the Bothell campus was helping a student using a screen reader do research in EBSCOhost Academic Source Complete. When they attempted to access the full-text article by activating the “Check for Full-Text” button, they discovered that the screen reader did not recognize the button because it had no alt-text description. The screen reader just skipped over the option. The student mentioned this had happened before when they were doing research and did not realize they could find a full text article in this way. The librarian shared this discovery with multiple people at Bothell, Cascadia, and Seattle campuses who work with accessibility. Together, we determined the issue and found a setting in the administrative interface to enter alt-text for the button. Since this problem was occurring in a heavily used resource, this improvement will likely help many others access this resource in the future.  Thankfully, with the raised awareness of accessibility and communication channels, this instance led to a quick solution. 

This post touches on some of the work we have done in the past year to improve accessibility — and there is still much to do — but we are making progress. As we move back to campus, we will resume work on improving the accessibility of our buildings and other projects.

Learn more about accessibility services at the Libraries

Questions? contact uwlib-a11y@uw.edu