At my Library System, we talked to Innovative last year and
they actually tried to tell us that their frames-based out-of-the-box
interface was ADA-compliant.  They don't seem to grasp the scope of
the issue, so at the very least, we plan to add accesskey and tabindex
tags into the HTML we can control as the browsers begin to implement
HTML 4.  This will be a small step though, as we can't control 95% of
the results screens.
        I'd love to see ALA address this, but I'm not optimistic (about
impact on the vendors, not ALA!).  Until it comes down to dollars for
the vendors, they won't devote resources to this.  Especially for
catalogs like DRA's that are built on client-side Java.

Jenny Levine
[log in to unmask]
Internet Development Specialist
Suburban Library System
http://www.sls.lib.il.us/

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Audrey Gorman [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2000 9:40 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Accessibility of Webpacs
>
> Does anyone know what's been done to approach vendors of these products?
> Has anyone raised this issue to anyone else at ALA (just so I know, since
> that's where I am!)?  What suggestions do people have for an approach to
> this issue?
>
> Audrey
> [log in to unmask]
>
> <<< [log in to unmask]  5/22 12:02p >>>
> Through some pretty intensive investigations we have not found any web based
> library packages, and have contacted almost all of the library software
> vendors, with no response.
>
> Two years ago about 80% of the library systems were inaccessible, six months
> ago it had climbed to 95%, primarily due to the issues you found with the
> Webpacs system.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Ron Stewart, Director
> Technology Access Program
> Information Services
> Oregon State University
> 109 Kidder Hall
> Corvallis, Oregon  97331
> Phone: 1.541.737.7307
> Fax:   1.541.737.2159
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> WWW: http://tap.orst.edu
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kelly Ford [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Monday, May 22, 2000 9:00 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Accessibility of Webpacs
>
> Hello Everyone,
>
> I was recently talking with officials at the Multnomah County Library in
> Portland, Oregon and learned that they are soon going too be using a
> graphical (web-based) library catalog system called Webpacs.  Apparently it
> comes from the vendor of their existing catalog system.
>
> The person I was talking with gave me URLs of some other libraries that are
> already using this system.  From my preliminary explorations it would
> appear that Webpacs is both a Java application and virtually inaccessible
> to screen readers.  Does anyone know if the accessibility option is correct
> and if so anything about efforts to address it?
>
> Below are the examples the person I spoke with provided to me.
>
> Kelly

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