Re: diglib: question

["Mark R. Watson" <mrwatson@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU>]

DigLib:

Perhaps the group should invite James Bailey to
attend one of our meetings to discuss accessibility
issues in the digital environment.

Mark

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "JQ Johnson" <jqj@darkwing.uoregon.edu>
To: <diglib@lists.uoregon.edu>
Sent: Saturday, February 17, 2001 6:48 PM
Subject: Re: diglib: question


Bob asks about accomodations for blind patrons.  We are legally required to 
make "reasonable accomodations" for people with disabilities.  My own 
feeling is that the fact that the ebook can be used with a screen reader is 
in itself a major step forward towards accessibility by blind patrons, and 
that the next step is not voice-encoded files but care in the generation of 
the HTML to make it work better with screen readers.  An example of such 
care for HTML formats is that an HTML ebook should not be in 2 columns. 
However, my overall feeling is that HTML will not be the format of choice 
for blind patrons, and that as we move to more generic ebook formats the 
problem will be resolved for us.

For lots more on accessibility, consult James Bailey in our library, or see 
his web site for links.