[Web4lib] Web technologies and public access

[Melora Norman]

The recent experiences I had working with blind people challenged my
perspective on these issues.

Many of the blind people I spoke with had given up on physical libraries
altogether; there was very little in most *typical* libraries for most
blind people.  Now that we are designing online experiences that
parallel or supplement our physical libraries, we have a unique
opportunity to offer information that is also accessible to blind
people--and, one step further, even to offer content that is very usable
for blind people.

For one thing, a few years ago, there were best-practice recommendations
for web design that included the creation of parallel web pages; some
software even supported this practice.  Since then, common wisdom
asserts that CSS and other improvements have made the parallel page
obsolete and unnecessarily redundant.  I question that this is always
entirely true because I believe that usable design for someone who is
very oriented to the use of graphics and usable design for someone who
is using a screen reader may very well be two different things.

Something else many blind computer users mentioned was that
accessibility for someone who has the latest and greatest software is
very different than for someone whose hardware and software are more
basic.  The latter's ability probably more closely resembles that of
someone using a PDA or phone, where a complicated structure--no matter
how closely it conforms with Section 508--may well create a barrier to
use.

Salud,

Melora

Melora Ranney Norman
Director, Quimby Library
Unity College, 90 Quaker Hill Rd.
Unity, ME 04988
207.948.3131 x233
mnorman at unity.edu
www.unity.edu