Case Study #6: Libraries

Electronic Course Reserves: A Case Study on Universal Access to Electronic Information in Academic Libraries

Background

My name is Rick and I am legally blind. I use Braille and speech output on a computer to access electronic information. This quarter, one of my sociology courses requires reading several articles that are on electronic library reserve.

Access Issue

When I opened the electronic documents, my text-to-speech software could not read them. I was unable to access the reserve articles through the library because the format was incompatible with my screen-reading software.

  1. Discuss potential solutions to the access issue described. There can be more than one good solution.
  2. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each proposed solution.
  3. Clarify the appropriate roles of the student, instructor, library staff, and disabled student services staff in reaching a decision and providing accommodations if needed.
  4. After you have completed your discussion, read the access solution that actually occurred in this case. It is printed on the back of this handout. Compare your proposed solutions with this solution. Discuss the conclusions listed, and add at least one more.

Source: The Student Services Conference Room, DO-IT, University of Washington. Permission is granted to reproduce this handout for educational noncommercial purposes.

Solution

Following is the solution that was actually employed in this case:

I explained the access situation to my disabled student services counselor. My counselor contacted library staff and informed them of the problem. The library scanned the printed articles with a flatbed scanner and optical character recognition software and saved the files as text on a disk that could be read by my text-to-speech computer system.

Conclusions

This case study illustrates the following:

  1. Some electronic information may not be accessible, even with the use of assistive technology (e.g., screen readers).
  2. Campus instructors and library staff need to be aware of the accessibility of electronic information when it is required course material.
  3. Postsecondary students can work with disabled student services, faculty, and/or library staff to make sure course materials are accessible, ideally before the beginning of a term.