2008

Optimizing Library Resources for Screen Readers

LITA National Forum 2008 Presenter: Nina McHale, Auraria Library, University of Colorado Denver. The speaker started her presentation by sharing her experience navigating a website with a user with visual disability. She pointed out that even though the information structure on a website makes sense for us (the visual users), it does not necessarily make sense for users with screen readers. Making your website accessible is very important because the goal of a library is providing access and not providing barriers. Accessibility matters because: 10 million people in the US are blind or visually impaired; 1.3 million people are legally blind due to age or other health issues. screen readers are used by blind users as well as people with learning and physical disabilities. writing good code is good practice and makes the web pages more accessible to all. Nina pointed out why accessibility is an issue: proliferation use of…