As you may recall, there was some discussion last summer on this list
about the accessibility of JSTOR's digital archives, which covers the
back issues of traditional print journals. Audrey Gorman compiled the
contributions on this topic in her June 5 posting (for details, see her
archived posting at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A2=ind0206&L=axslib-l&F=&S=&P=52
).
I'm forwarding a section from an announcement by JSTOR concerning their
recent efforts to make their product more accessible:
Beginning of quote:
ACCESSSIBILITY IMPROVEMENTS
Addressing the accessibility of the JSTOR archive for visually impaired
and learning disabled users has long been a goal for JSTOR. Owing to
our archival mission, our journal content is delivered as image-based
PDF files in order to maintain a faithful replication of the original.
(For more information about this, please visit
http://www.jstor.org/about/images.html.) While the image-based format
allows us to create a faithful replication of the printed journal, this
format cannot easily be accessed using assistive technologies such as
screen readers or document scanners.
Today we have released the first phase of accessibility improvements to
the JSTOR interface. The modifications that we have made thus far
represent a major stride in our efforts to make all pages within the
JSTOR website compliant with Section 508 of The Rehabilitation Act and
W3C WAI Priority 1 standards. With this release, the pages a user
encounters in the process of retrieving JSTOR content, as well as many
other pages within the website, are compliant. We will continue making
improvements to the site in order to further the accessibility and
usability of JSTOR and look forward to hearing your comments and
suggestions.
In addition to the general interface improvements, users may now
download journal content in Tagged Image File Format (TIFF). These
image-based files are compatible with document scanners, such as
Kurzweil and Openbook. It is possible to set this format as a download
preference in order to streamline the process of accessing journal
content in the JSTOR archive.
More detailed information about our accessibility improvements,
including instructions for using TIFFs with document scanners, has been
added to the site. Please see:
JSTOR and Accessibility
http://www.jstor.org/about/accessibility.html
Downloading and Reading JSTOR Journals with Document Readers
http://www.jstor.org/help/tiff-download.html
Site Navigation and Access Keys
http://www.jstor.org/help/access-keys.html
End of quote.
(For the full-text of this announcement, which also addresses
improvements not directly related to accessibility, open the attachment
entitled "JSTOR Interface Developments").
I don't know how other folks feel about JSTOR's effort. To me it appears
to be a move into the right direction. JSTOR has been most responsive to
recent concerns about the accessibility of online information products.
Not only did JSTOR re-design its website (its gateway web pages to its
archival articles files) to accommodate the needs of all users,
including those with visual disabilities, it also decided to add TIFF
files as an output option for its archived articles. While TIFF files
are still image-based, they provide fewer hurdles than PDF-image files
for those users who seek to convert them into accessible text files with
the help of OCR software.
Three of JSTOR's representatives participated in the recent Accessing
Higher Grounds conference, a national conference dedicated to access
issues in post-secondary education. This non-profit organization is to
be commended for its sincere and ongoing effort to improve the
accessibility of its product. If you have constructive suggestions for
further improvements, I'm sure the JSTOR folks would like to hear about
them (and this forum would be a good place to discuss them).
Axel
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Axel Schmetzke, Ph.D.
Library
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
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