Ensuring Equal Access, Collaborating on Accessibility

Digital Library Brown Bag Series #dlbb

Joe Humbert, UITS Assistive Technology and Accessibility Centers @Joe HumbertChris Colvard, Library TechnologiesBrian Keese, Library Technologies

Leah Lee, Library Technologies

Overview

• About the Assistive Technology and Accessibility Centers (ATAC)• Collaboration History• Avalon Media System• Avalon Accessibility Collaboration• Implementing Accessibility in Avalon• Benefits beyond IU• Future Plans

Assistive Technology and Accessibility Centers (ATAC)

• Founded in 1998• Part of University Information Technology Services (UITS)• Vision statement:– Using technology to provide equal access and an inclusive

environment for the IU community• Services for students, faculty, and staff

ATAC Accessibility Services

• IT accessibility evaluations• Consultations• Trainings and presentations

History of Collaborations

• Long standing collaborations between ATAC and IU Libraries• Accessibility evaluations of multiple projects– Libraries website– Variations– IUCAT/WorldCat– Sheet Music Consortium Metadata Mapping Tool– Mets Navigator– Victorian Women Writers

• Latest collaboration is Avalon

Avalon Media System

• Open source solution for curating and providing online access to video and audio collections in libraries and archives.

• Started in 2011• Collaboratively developed by IU and Northwestern University• Build on existing open source software – Hydra, Blacklight, Fedora, MediaElement.js

• http://www.avalonmediasystem.org

Avalon at Indiana University

• Media Collections Online– https://media.dlib.indiana.edu – 1500+ items and growing– Integrated into Canvas

• Omeka site for WWII videos– http://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/IULMIA/exhibits/show/world-war-ii-propaganda-films

Avalon Accessibility Collaboration

• Began as high-level accessibility review request• Progressed to consultation• Lead to accessibility awareness• Became interactive and iterative process

Implementing Accessibility into Avalon

• Started with studying report & learning more about accessibility– https://wiki.dlib.indiana.edu/display/VarVideo/Accessibility

• Analyzed report looking at importance, difficulty, and location• Prioritized fixes• Implemented, sought review, and iteratively improved

Pain Points for Implementing Accessibility

• 3rd party dependencies– MediaElement.js• Deemed too costly/risky to update so did everything custom

– Blacklight• Headings change required major upstream release

• Tab order and highlighting• Captioning/Transcripts

Current Status of Accessibility Improvements

• General accessibility– Default language– Page titles– Interactive element labels

• Keyboard accessibility– Visual indication of keyboard focus– Media player improvements

• Implemented into Avalon 4.0• Media Collections Online upgrades released October 2015

Benefits Beyond IU: Blacklight

• Multi-institutional open-source collaboration building a better discovery platform framework

• IUCAT and in production at many other institutions• http://projectblacklight.org/

Benefits Beyond IU: Blacklight (Continued)

• Meaningful search result page titles– Based upon Amazon– Implemented in Avalon 4.0– Contributed upstream and should be in Blacklight 5.15

• Joined discussion on appropriate heading structure

Future plans

• Continue iterative process with Avalon– https://

wiki.dlib.indiana.edu/display/VarVideo/Accessibility#Accessibility-PhasedPlan

• Review development frameworks• Contribute accessible code to open source projects– Hydra, Blacklight

• Collaborate on future library projects

Contact Information

• ATAC– Joe Humbert

• johumber@iu.edu• @JoeHumbert

• Accessibility service requests– atacweb@iu.edu– atac.iu.edu/accessibility.php

• Avalon Media System– Chris Colvard

• cjcolvar@Indiana.edu

– Leah Lee• lmb@iu.edu

– Brian Keese• bkeese@Indiana.edu

• http://www.avalonmediasystem.org

Next Digital Libraries Brown Bag

• October 7, 2015• CBRC Digital Repository: storing and viewing 3D objects, for

science!• https://libraries.indiana.edu/digital-library-brown-bag-series