We are considering 3 key accessibility pieces in the Digital Initiatives Project including:
Accessibility Procurement Guidelines
Provide procurement guidelines for accessibility, that can be used as an evaluation tool when deciding to license a given resource. These guidelines can be used by the BC Libraries Co-op as well as member libraries.
Accessibility Platform Testing of each of the Proposed Licensed Resources
The National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS) will assess the accessibility and usability of each of the platforms identified in the Licensing project and identify which features currently pose accessibility barriers for people with print disabilities who rely on assistive technology, what those barriers are, and what needs to be done to remove them. Drawing on the DAISY consortium’s list of accessibility features for commercial reading applications, NNELS’ team of testers will undertake systematic evaluations of the accessibility of the platform (desktop and mobile) websites, as well as of the app, if available, for IOS and Android. Accessibility testers with various print disabilities (totally blind, low vision, dyslexia) will perform several tasks (e.g. create an account, search for content and filter results, borrow a book/view content) and identify the accessibility issues they encounter. These usability tests will show if the various features can be used with assistive technologies. These reports will be shared with the vendor and also shared publicly for ongoing dialogue and to inform new development.
Volunteer Audiobook Recording Project for BC Books
NNELS will produce human-narrated accessible audiobooks, through our volunteer narrator program, including working with indigenous volunteers. With this funding, we will concentrate on books that have a BC connection, with 3 areas of focus: a) produce human-narrated accessible audiobooks for the BC Summer Reading Club titles; b) produce human-narrated accessible audiobooks for BC and Yukon Book Prize titles and other BC Book Awards for 2020; and c) optionally, produce human-narrated accessible audiobooks of BC content including indigenous content.