Week 9

Week 9 notes:

Physical accessibility to library buildings has always been on my radar. If it’s difficult to get into the building or navigate the stacks, a library is useless to someone with a restrictive physical disability. What hadn’t occurred to me was web accessibility and less visible disabilities like color blindness and seizure disorders. It just never occurred to me that it’s as important for a library’s website to be accessible as the building itself. If a user can’t access the information s/he needs, the library is useless. “nearly 24.5 million people in the United States are unable to retrieve information from library websites unless web authors make accessibility and usability their goal” (Fulton, C, 2011, p. 38)

The thing is, it’s not that hard to make a website accessible—and it’s the library’s duty to do so in 

order to serve the community. “The most important thing a library can do to make informed decisions about adaptive technology is understand the needs of the community it serves. Only after a library 

builds insight into disability types and technology preferences of its users can it select appropriate 

products and services that will adequately meet their needs” (Gruder, 2012, p. 21). If a web developer keeps the needs of all patrons in mind and uses common-sense web building techniques in mind (like 

using CSS instead of HTML), websites that are accessible to most—if not all—patrons are possible.

Fulton, C. Information Technology and Libraries. “Web Accessibility, Libraries, and the Law.” March 2011 34-43.

Gruder, C.S. Library Technology Reports. “Making Libraries Accessible: Adaptive Design and Assistive Technology. October 2012.