Hi there,

Last week, I listened to presentations by Exlibris and Endeavor sales
representatives pertaining to their new federated search tools: MetaLib
and ENCOMPASS. Federated searching is based on the idea of a
one-stop-search-all approach and involves a single gateway to a variety
of different finding aids, including library catalogs, journal
indexes/databases and web search engines. Obviously, the accessibility
of federated search interfaces is very important. If these interfaces
are accessible, then users have access to information even if the
"native" interfaces of specific finding aids are inaccessible. 

I am going to invite the Exlibris and Endeavor representatives to
comment publicly on the accessibility of their federated search
products. Their comments will be posted to this group.

I was thinking of asking the representatives to respond to the five
questions listed below. If you can think of additional questions, feel
free to share these with me, and I will consider adding them to the
list. Also, if you know of other companies offering federated search
products, please let me know. The names of sales reps, phone numbers and
their e-mail addresses would be very helpful.

Questions for sales representatives:

1. To which extent does the current version of your product comply with
relevant Section 508 standards? 
2. To which extent does the current version of your product conform to
the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (either the current WCAG 1.0 or
the drafted WCAG 2.0) developed by the World Wide Web Consortium's Web
Accessibility Initiative (WAI)? 
3. To which extent did the usability testing of your product involve
people accessing computers with the help of assistive technology? Which
specific screen readers were used to test the accessibility/usability of
your product?
4. In which way will the changes envisioned for the next version of your
product improve its accessibility and usability for users of assistive
technology?
5. If your product currently lacks full compliance with Section 508,
what is your company doing to bring about full compliance? By when can
full compliance be expected?

Greetings,

Axel


***************************
Axel Schmetzke, Ph.D.
Library
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
715-346-4658
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