Making your library or LRC more accessible

The RSC’s Accessibility for library and LRC staff event  last week in Birmingham gave delegates a timely update into a range of small, as well as more significant ways libraries can develop their services to ensure all users have equal access, regardless of disability.

Bullring by Mallsecrets on Flickr

If you weren’t lucky enough to attend, I thought it would be useful to summarise some of the topics covered and give you links to some resources to get you started. 


Providing inclusive library services
The first of the morning sessions, by Alistair McNaught of JISCTechDIS emphasised the importance of understanding the needs of disabled users when planning services. To help us understand disabled users’ needs, he recommended two Web sites, which help put yourself in the shoes of learners with autism, dyslexia, hearing or visual impairments:

• Simdis simulates some of the issues facing learners with disabilities when they access resources (a free downloadable browser plugin may be needed)
• Watchwords is a deaf awareness tutorial developed by Sussex Downs College and JISC TechDIS

Reaching disabled users is about marketing services effectively to them and Alistair made the point that user guides, signage and other materials need to be in a format which can be comfortably understood and he demonstrated some useful tweaks, as well as mentioning some case studies:

• Printed library guides can be made more accessible by using the in-built Styles in common word processing packages
• Offer a Podcast or video, rather than just printed information
• One college uses a cartoon strip format to explain what services are available in the library

During this session and the sharing good practice exercise in the afternoon, we came up with many ways we can adapt and improve services to make them more accessible – here are a few of them:

• Offer extended loan periods, or allow borrowing by proxy (some students may not have the confidence to come to the busy library desk.)
• Provide simple assistive technologies, such as adjustable desks and keyboard and mouse alternatives
• Meet with your learner support colleagues so you can begin to understand your users better and tailor services, such as induction to the needs of different groups
• Improve wheelchair access by changing the configuration of desks and other furniture.

Providing resources in alternative formats

Alistair’s session on obtaining books in alternative formats was an eye-opener to many and the key message was that publishers will usually supply books in alternative (usually PDF) format, if asked (a fee is sometimes payable). Many libraries are also now providing e-books and it is worth highlighting the inherent accessibility benefits of these over printed books. Reading on screen gives you access to text to speech options, magnification and adjusting screen colours, for example.

There are many ways of making text more accessible online and we explored a few options:

• The Adobe (PDF) Reader has some really good features, such as zoom and text flow and automatically scrolling text 
• Free text-to-speech tools, such as Balabolka
• Magnification tools and on screen rulers, such as VU Bar to help with reading
• To assist with search, Alistair recommended the Vionto visual search engine 

JISC TechDIS have recently published a guide to obtaining textbooks in alternative formats

AccessApps and MyStudyBar

Alison Wootton's session in the afternoon gave delegates a chance to try out MyStudyBar and the AccessApps suite of free software. MyStudyBar would be a great standard tool to install on all PCs in any library or LRC and AccessApps software can be made available to users on memory sticks to borrow. Why not create two or three tailored collections of software on sticks to suit the needs of particular student groups?

• Here is a collection of screencasts, explaining how you can download and make use of AccessApps