QR codes and accessibility

[Steffen Schilke]

Dear Deborah,

that's an interesting point you've made. The QR Code could be surrounded /
marked with braille (like in an elevator). Maybe an acoustic signal which
starts making a "sound" when someone get's close to it. By doing so the
"detection part" could be handled. (Anyhow how do visual handicapped
persons detect printed posters etc.? Same issue - what's the ADA "standard
approach" for this?)

For the rest the equipment of the user has to be able to support them to
start a qr code reader app and report it's findings (e.g., read the content
or report that it found a URL).

The same would apply for NFC - at least the smart phone has to support the
user and also the detection problem seems the same.

I am very interested in this and I would like to exchange ideas on it.

Kind regards

sws

On Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 9:29 PM, Deborah Stanley <dstanley at uga.edu> wrote:

> 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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