Digitization for the visually impaired

Digitization for the visually impaired: accessibility in archives for the new generation

By Camille Chidsey

As future librarians, we hold accountability towards our clients and their needs. Not every patron who walks into the library will be able to view and browse collections without visual impairments, and accommodations have to be met for them.

With the introduction of the Internet Archive, librarian Brewster Kahle, doubled the number of print books for blind and dyslexic patrons with the aid of DAISY, otherwise known as Digital Accessible Information System, a means of creating “talking books” that can be downloaded to handheld devices (Steinberg, 2010, p.1). “Unlike books on tape, the digital format makes it easier for print-disabled people to navigate books because they can speed up, slow down and skip around from chapter to chapter” (Steinberg, 2010 p.1).

However, while influential organizations like the National Federation for the Blind and the Helen Keller Archives have made leaps and bounds regarding what can be done for the digitization of archives, processes of recording and retrieving data still have a long way to go to be fully effective for all patrons. Even with text readers, and talking books and newspapers becoming more common, using the internet is a whole other ballgame entirely for patrons with visual impairments. As one blind user put it while trying to use a text reader to interpret the internet,

"When blind people use the Internet and come across unfriendly sites, we aren't surfing, we are crawling ... Imagine hearing pages that say, 'Welcome to ... [image]' This is the home of ... [image].' 'Link, link, link.' It is like trying to use Netscape with your monitor off and your mouse unplugged. See how far you'll get" (Waddell, 1998, p. 1).

It stands to reason that digitization processes have a long way to go. Universal design in archives can only be as good as all archival documents, and as print documentation is not the only form, web databases need to be accessible for everyone as well. We need this to keep an informed population and protect basic rights of access to information for all.

References Cited

Steinberg, Stephanie. (2010, July 13). Millions of Books Get Digitized for the Disabled.

            USA Today. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-07-

            14-InternetArchive14_st_N.htm.

Waddell, Cynthia D (1998). Applying the ADA to the Internet: A Web Accessibility

            Standard. Retrieved from

            http://membrane.com/security/java_and_cookies/notes/ADA.html.