What I am interested in is ALA assisting in and perhaps coordinating the
effort to bring the necessary pressure to bear on the vendors of these
products. Most library software purchases are done outside the existing bid
process due to the sole source nature of most of these databases. We have
very good hardware and software purchasing guidelines, but they do not do a
bit of good when almost all of the products on the market are unusable to
persons with print access issues.
Perhaps the ALA could spearhead an awareness drive so that most libraries
are aware of the problems with the products they are purchasing, and using
the resulting groundswell of informed purchasers could then help present a
united front to the various vendors. We are never going to get anywhere if a
library hear or there is making a fuss, but when a significant portion of
the client base is saying enough is enough then it is my guess that we will
see some movement on the part of the vendors.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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: Audrey Gorman [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2000 8:21 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Webpacs
Mike et al,
Are you interested in seeing policy, guidelines and standards on
accessibility of electronic technology, specifically, from ALA? What would
you want to see covered? Where would you put the emphasis? Right now we're
beginning to focus on web accessibility (which would include the webpac
issue) and on accessible library workstations, but we're in the early
stages. I'd really appreciate help from this group.
As background, here's some information that may be helpful:
One of ALA's key priority areas is "Equity of Access." This is reflected in
a number of statements, including policies 1.3. (Priority Areas and Goals,
especially areas A and F), 53.1. (Library Bill of Rights) (see
http://www.ala.org/work/freedom/lbr.html which includes all
interpretations), and 60. (Minority Concerns). For the online version of
the ALA Policy Manual in its entirety see
http://www.ala.org/alaorg/policymanual/
For a list of ALA documents on the topic of access, see
http://www.ala.org/work/standards.html
and especially http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/pol_reg.html
The mission and some basic documents from the ALA Office for Information
Technology Policy can be seen at http://www.ala.org/oitp/ Understandably,
much of their emphasis til now has been on basic connectivity and getting
libraries Internet access, which is still not a given.
These give a good idea of where we are...and where we're not, yet. I'm
looking forward to whatever all of you can contribute.
Audrey
Audrey J. Gorman
Director
Roads To Learning
ASCLA/The American Library Association
50 East Huron Street
Chicago, IL 60611
1-800-545-2433 Ext. 4027
Fax: 312-944-87085
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Web page: www.ala.org/roads
>>> [log in to unmask] 05/29/00 09:13AM >>>
I am comforted to see so many others involved in with these issues. We
continue to search for opinions and/or experience with CD-ROM index
accessibility (post made 2000 05 10). It seems Webpacs has its own set of
access issues. Our non-library ORACLE experience is similar to other posts.
Audrey - Does the ALA have a formal position on accessibility? Are there
any ALA procurement checklists, guidelines, requirements, standards, or
policies? If so perhaps they can be easily referenced (ie website). If
not, I suggest that an ALA position statement be drafted. This way
individual library concerns (ie arguments with vendors, what to purchase,
etc) can be draped in the context of larger library policy.
Ron - You quoted some accessibility stats in your 2000 05 23 post (ie 80% to
95% degrade). Could you please reference this? Perhaps you have on hand a
list of vendors who were contacted, who responded, who is accessible etc.
This may provide Audrey (and the rest of us) some help in getting going.
Kelly - Thanks for raising this. Accessibility work-arounds in java land
are not straight-forward. On something so fundamental to inclusion, I think
it appropriate to demand accessibility in the original software design ( ie
not a work-around). I had truly thought there would be many accessible
software catalog alternatives but Ron's post makes me think otherwise. May
I respectfully suggest you make your own accessibility clause in your
procurement efforts. You could request for example that the vendor
successfully demonstrate and/or guarantee accessibility parameters as
defined by Section 508. Recently, I have seen a few examples where
accessibility was mentioned in the tendering documents.
Anyone had to make CD-ROM Indexes accessible?
Mike Arnold
e-mail/courriel: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Tel: (819) 997-2903
Fax: (819) 953-5995
-----Original Message-----
From: Jenny Levine [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2000 2:31 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Accessibility of Webpacs
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
Check the URL below to register your institutions
Web page in EASI's Batteri-free Web contest.
http://www.rit.edu/~easi
Barrier-free Web Design Online Workshop
Workshop starts June 7, 2000
http://www.rit.edu/~easi/workshops/easiweb.htm
Barrier-free Web Design Online Workshop
Workshop starts June 7, 2000
http://www.rit.edu/~easi/workshops/easiweb.htm
Barrier-free Web Design Online Workshop
Workshop starts June 7, 2000
http://www.rit.edu/~easi/workshops/easiweb.htm
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