QR codes and accessibility

[Collins, Matthew S]

I don't have an answer on the ADA issue. But the issue is actually slight more (or less) complicated, since most new smart-phones have touch screens rather than buttons.  These phones are inherently difficult for the visually impaired to use.

-Matthew

------------------------------
Matthew Collins, PhD, MLIS
mscolli at emory.edu
-----------------------------

|-----Original Message-----
|From: Web technologies in libraries [mailto:WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On
|Behalf Of Deborah Stanley
|Sent: Friday, August 31, 2012 3:30 PM
|To: WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU
|Subject: [WEB4LIB] QR codes and accessibility
|
|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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|Web4Lib Web Site: http://web4lib.org/
|
|2012-08-31

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2012-08-31