QR codes and accessibility

[Deborah Stanley]

Hi. I've received an interesting question that I'm hoping someone here
might be able to shed some light on. Looking at what we do from an ADA
compliance point of view, we are required to provide the same
information to patrons with disabilities as we are to patrons without
disabilities. Specifically, I was asked what libraries do to make QR
codes ADA-compliant, i.e. how does a visually impaired or totally
blind patron access the same information that a sighted person, using
a QR code, can access with their smartphone?

I must admit, I am having a hard time figuring out what the issues
really are, and I haven't found anything very specific on the web
either. I think there are a couple of issues (at least!) with this,
and I'm wondering if any libraries out there have addressed this in
any way?

Presumably if someone has a phone with an app that can read print
(i.e. hard copy print such as posters, fliers, handouts), we could put
the URL next to the QR code, so that the phone could read it. We
should be doing that anyway, in order to provide access for people
without smartphones. I don't know if phones are able to detect that
there is a QR code nearby and direct a visually impaired patron
towards it (?), or if phones that can read physical print items can
also detect a QR code within that print page, and decode it and direct
the user to a website.

If anyone has any thoughts or insights on this, or any experience to
share on what their library does, I would be very grateful for your
feedback.

Many thanks,
Deborah Stanley

-- 
Deborah Stanley
UGA Libraries Web Editor, Germanic & Slavic Studies Librarian,
Reference Librarian
University of Georgia Libraries
Athens GA 30602

dstanley at uga.edu
Phone: (706) 542-0656
Fax: (706) 583-0268
http://www.libs.uga.edu/staffpages/stanley.html

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2012-08-31