Web accessibility

A colleague sent me this link this morning: Best and Worst College Web Sites for Blind Students  (Rice ranks 155)
http://chronicle.com/article/BestWorst-College-Web/125642/?sid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en

And I have to say, it is food for thought. I am a member of our library committee that is hard at work building a new web site that will go into user testing in early January. I think we do a pretty good job at the library of making sure our material is user friendly.

Linda Spiro created a LibGuide on Accessibility tips and it includes a section on web accessibility. But how do you ensure that you are doing all that you can do to make your site accessible?

I strongly believe that by improving accessibility of your site, you improve the web experience of all users.

NPR did a great story earlier this year on the Digital Divide of Disability. Very interesting, and important. It talks about a nonprofit, based in Austin, Texas, called Knowbility, which “supports the independence of people with disabilities by promoting the use and improving the availability of accessible information technology.”

So, as I ponder the ranking of my institution, and think about the redesign of our library website, I am reminded that accessibility is one of the most important considerations of any redesign.

ipadio

ipadio “allows you to broadcast from any phone to the Internet live.  Phone blog, collect audio data, record and update the world, or simply let your mates know what you’re doing – ipadio is integrated with Social Media & Blogging platforms. (pat pend GB0820862.1)” This is currently a free tool.  You can place a call to the iPadio number from your cell or desktop phone, record an audio post, and have it immediately show up on your blog, wiki, or other website (without having to copy and paste embed code.) I see tremendous classroom applications for this–students could call and leave posts for other students. Professors could post research questions. What else?

Making science accessible

I happened to come across this post from a science librarian at Penn State.

It was impressive to hear from Dr. Abraham Nemeth, the historic
mathematics professor who developed the standard system of Braille used
for math in the sciences.  Recording of the lecture available online. 
He worked on Computer Science projects at Penn State in 1968 and 1969. 
He had a map of Penn State in cloth with embroidered routes and notes
of braille
posted on locations in code for look up in another braille book.  After
studying it he could get to McAllister with no trouble on his own.  A
very amusing lecturer, I would have enjoyed sitting in his math
courses.  He had some comments about the lack of air conditioning at
Penn State dormitories.

Currently, the American Physical Society, along with John Gardner, a blind physicist and Rice alum, is working on a project to make APS journals accessible to the blind.At the 2009 Academic Publishing in Europe conference, this was a presentation on the very interesting project.