Accessibility: Metadata, Practices, Programs

By Nettie Lagace (Associate Executive Director, NISO)

As guest editor, I’m delighted and honored to introduce this excellent Against the Grain collection of articles on the topic of accessibility. I took on this project as an opportunity to improve my own understanding and to learn new things. This area of work is constantly improving and there is always more to know.

This issue includes an assortment of perspectives on accessibility in general, on the mindsets we need to adopt for better support, and how we might better collaborate across the institution-vendor-content provider space to share information and create tools. Collaboration is a key factor to any advancement or improvement, especially in the accessibility space that affects so many of us, and I’m very pleased that all the articles promote this activity.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up to one in four adults in the United States have some sort of disability.1 Statistics are similar in the UK,2 Europe,3 and Canada.4 Of course, there are many forms of disability, but it’s likely that everyone either experiences a disability of their own or knows someone quite closely who is disabled. Disabilities can include vision or hearing impairments, motor disabilities, or neurodiversity, among others. Supporting accessibility needs to be a core part of our work in libraries and the information industry not only in order to ensure that our outputs are reaching the broadest possible audience but also to ensure effective input into decisions and directions. And improving accessibility actually benefits many more users than even the “target” audience; it’s likely that non-disabled users will take advantage of accessible features as well. For example, how many of us use captioned content, even that produced in our own language, to help better understand actors with strong regional accents, or to watch programs online when our family member next to us is sleeping?

In this ATG issue, we’re focusing on digital accessibility: the work to ensure that any online text or audiovisual content or web-based tool is usable by any user who needs it. It’s important to bear in mind some obstacles, as described by Joni Dames in her practical paper, “An Incomplete Guide to Creating Accessible Content”:

• Visual (not everyone can see your content)

• Aural (not everyone can hear your content)

• Physical (not everyone can click on things in your content)

• Geographical (not everyone has fast, stable Internet to download your content)

• Cognitive (not everyone can understand your content)

• Cultural (the visual signifiers in your content mean different things in different countries)5

It can be easy to take our own abilities and perspectives for granted. Such complacency can block the creativity and innovation needed to solve accessibility issues experienced by others.

Our authors demonstrate no short supply of awareness and appetite to tackle these issues in their organizations and those of their partners:

As Beth mentions, we need to ensure that resources and tools are fully available for staff users as well as end users. Her article describes an application of external frameworks supporting accessible principles to improve library processes, to ensure that these processes may truly help all library users by thinking about them in new ways.

Simon and Nicholas relate how important it is to collaborate with others, internally and externally, to improve systems and continually promote work within a vendor operation. Their account of how they rely on the WCAG standard to create VPATs and embed accessibility into product design, and create a culture of continuous improvement, is to be admired.

Bill discusses how individual efforts at remediating inaccessible course content — an extremely labor-intensive activity — can be analyzed and brought together to create standards to support better sharing and collaboration and improve tools for access. The benefits impact users and the institutions who serve them and foster a network of experts who can rely on each other.

Elyssa and Leigh describe their library’s subscribed product testing and tracking program, which supports their own users directly — but also provides a basis for collaboration and sharing information across libraries and fosters better communication with vendors and content providers.

Collaboration and sharing can bear real fruit!

A Few Additional Inspirations from Sources Outside Our Community:

Many varied statistics are cited in an illuminating web accessibility report issued earlier this year by Pixelplex, some describing market sizes and forecasts, others describing the state of accessibility and how digital experiences are still viewed as “inadequate” because of the lack of support. But the report also includes forward-looking remarks, such as the potential for AI to contribute positively to this area of work, and how most organizations see the adoption of a digital accessibility policy to be a competitive advantage. Pixelplex states, “By prioritizing web accessibility, you enhance customer engagement and experience, minimize legal risks, and position your business as forward-looking and customer-centric.”6

And as stated by s.e. smith in The Nation in an article about creative approaches to supporting communication with and spaces for disabled people, “Accessibility can also challenge nondisabled people, or those who don’t share a given impairment, to think about how they view the disability community. […] Accessibility doesn’t have to, and shouldn’t, be a burden.”7 Indeed.

I’m impressed with the expertise and advice included here from our authors. I think you will find it helpful, too.