Axel, I've been asking those questions since the mid-1980s, and the
vendors have come a long way, influenced by the laws and demand. So. You
are right. We should just keep asking, and things will improve. Susan

"Schmetzke, Axel" wrote:
>
> Right on, Allathea! Librarians need to exercise their buying power in
> order to facilitate change.
>
> Audrey, my questions to vendors have evolved over the past year. When
> the answer to my first question ("Does your product comply with the
> W3C/WAI Guidelines and/or Access Board Standards?") is either a "no" or
> a "I don't know," I follow up with the following question:
>
> "What efforts has your company undertaken so far to make your product
> accessible to people with disabilities?"
>
> If the answer to my initial question is "yes," I ask; "With which
> commonly used screen readers has your product been tested?" (And: "Can
> you give us a demonstration.")
>
> Finally, since no product is perfect, there is always room towards the
> end of the exchange to inquire about the following:
>
> "What is your company's schedule for making (further) improvements
> concerning your product's accessibility?"
>
> Hey, it's nice to see some life in this group! Greetings,
>
> Axel
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Audrey Gorman [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2002 5:39 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Any interesting news from the ALA midwinter conference???
>
> Good for the Free Library! You're absolutely right that librarians
> should be asking for accessibility in everything we buy.  Any ideas
> from the group on how to encourage that?
>
> Related: I'm now a member of the Education and Outreach Work Group of
> the Web Accessibility Initiative, World Wide Web Consortium.  We're
> working on (among other things) the draft of the document "Selecting
> Authoring Tools for Accessible Web Site." (This is another area in
> which we need to raise librarian awareness of the need for
> accessibility.) For the latest draft of the document, go to
> http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/impl/software4
>
> By the way, Axel, the questions you framed and we talked about last
> year were the basis for "Asking Software Vendors about Product
> Support" under the "Checklists for Authoring Tool Selection" heading.
> Does anyone have any to add?
>
> If you all have time, please take a look at the "Working Around
> Limitations" section and give me feedback to take to the group.
>
> Cheers!
> Audrey
> > This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not
> understand
> > this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.
> > > Axel,
> >
> > Slightly off topic, but I am convincing our online resource selector
> to
> > bring this up with every vendor as she re-ups for these expensive
> tools.
> > The more librarians that do this the better.  Some of the things
> they need
> > to do are simple.  Also we are going to use Webfeat to simplify the
> search
> > process and we have control of the interface so it WILL be
> accessible.
> >
> > I'm happy about that.
> >
> > Allathea Joniec
> > Information Technology
> > The Free Library of Philadelphia
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Schmetzke, Axel [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2002 2:22 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Any interesting news from the ALA midwinter conference???
> >
> >
> > Did any of you attend ALA midwinter. If so, did you talk to vendors
> of
> > online information resources about the accessibility of their
> products? Is
> > there anything worth sharing with this group?
> >
> > Axel Schmetzke
> > Library
> > University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
> >
> >
> >