Hello All,

 

LYRASIS announces the release of a new study, Understanding the Landscape of Library Accessibility for Online Materials. The study was undertaken in an effort to map the landscape of accessibility policies and practices for online resources as managed by libraries and archives across the United States. The study can be accessed on the LYRASIS website at https://www.lyrasis.org/technology/Pages/Accessibility-Survey-Report.aspx.

 

Authored by Hannah Rosen, LYRASIS Scholarly Communication Specialist and Digitization Program Coordinator, and Jill Grogg, Strategist for the Content and Scholarly Communication Initiatives team, the study is based on a survey conducted in early 2019 as a mechanism to better understand how (primarily academic) libraries within the United States are handling accessibility for their online content, and more specifically, where they stand in terms of policy and implementation. 

 

Key findings of the study include:

 

• Libraries are the most progressive in terms of accessibility when they maintain the most control over their content.
• National policies and community technical guidelines on accessibility hold more prominence than local or institutional mandates.
• Most accessibility training is self-initiated; more infrastructure is needed to train librarians in accessibility mandates and tools.

Celeste Feather, Senior Director of Content and Scholarly Communication Initiatives at LYRASIS says of the report, “This study is an important piece of the work LYRASIS is doing to understand the needs of collections holding institutions across the country, and helps unite libraries in their efforts to make materials more accessible to their users and communities. Our goal is to leverage the reach we have at LYRASIS, with more than 1000 members, to help build conversations around these vital topics and use our research abilities to inform the wider community about these important trends and best practices.

The report and all survey materials, including original survey questions and anonymized responses are accessible on the LYRASIS webpage. Visit https://www.lyrasis.org/technology/Pages/Accessibility-Survey-Report.aspxx for more information.

 

 

LYRASIS Content and Scholarly Communication Initiatives Team