People with disabilities are all around us. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (August 2024), nearly one in eight adults in the United States have a disability. Disabilities come in all shapes and sizes, and not all are visible. These individuals are most certainly in our libraries, accessing our resources with mixed results. Attempts to best serve these patrons often overwhelm well-meaning librarians, who do not know where to begin and do not want to fumble these efforts. The current information landscape regarding disability advocacy and design is disarrayed and opaque, leading to confusion on how to best implement solutions.

Enter Universal Design. Universal Design is the idea that the best design is universal—designs accessible regardless of ascribed attributes, in other words, to all users. This includes seven principles, ranging from equitable use to low physical effort on the part of the user. Adopting Universal Design may sound intimidating, but can be done relatively easily.

This program will go over the tenets of Universal Design and offer justifications for embracing this philosophy for electronic materials, including resources, intranets, websites, and more. This will include examples of both good and bad design and explain why, and more easily identify potentially challenging design choices. The goal is to give the audience takeaways that they can implement immediately at their institution. The concepts covered in this presentation will only require minimal technological savviness, as this is targeted toward newcomers to Universal Design.

This presentation will focus on design choices most easily accessible. Many of these strategic design choices, like selecting a font more easily readable by those with certain disabilities, are both easy to implement and free. This discussion of best design practices will be accompanied by an overview of accessibility tools, such as WebAIM's Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool, WebAIM’s contrast checker, JAWS, and NVDA screen readers. Many of these tools are freely available on the internet, making them easy to implement at their own institutions. Throughout this section of the program, each speaker will discuss a case study or example from their own work and how they were able to implement these changes at their institutions. As the needs of patrons differ based on institution and disability, the presenters will discuss how their examples effect their specific patron base.

The next section of the program will have the attendees and presenters review a website live and conduct an accessibility assessment. In this assessment, the presenters will walk through the use of WebAIM's Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool to evaluate a current website. This evaluation will highlight how to identify problems on electronic resources. We will also cover how to correct identified problems such as insufficient contrast or tab focus errors using the other tools, WebAIM’s contrast checker and a screen reader (JAWS and/or NVDA).

In addition to this live demonstration, participants will also be given access to a toolkit including a list of resources and tools to conduct accessibility at their own institutions. Finally, the presenters will take questions from the audience.

TARGET AUDIENCE:

Electronic resource librarians, electronic services librarians, librarians designing websites, managers overseeing IT projects, and others working with digital resources.

TAKEAWAYS:

1. Participants will be able to describe how Universal Design should be implemented in online library environments.
2. Participants will be able to utilize three accessibility tools that can be used to augment their library’s online presence. Participants will be given a toolkit at the end of the session allowing them to more easily implement these tools and suggested changes.
3. Participants will be able to justify the use of tools (Web Accessibility Checker, Contrast Checker, Visual webpage filters/simulators, screen readers, and keyboard accessibility lists) to managers to improve all patrons’ experience with electronic materials.

SPEAKERS:

• Susan deMaine, Indiana University Maurer School of Law

COORDINATOR:

• Kristen Naik, Sidley Austin LLP

AALL BODY OF KNOWLEDGE DOMAINS: Marketing + Outreach, Management + Business Acumen

CANCELLATION AND OTHER POLICIES:

No refunds will be given for any purchased AALL conference recording. This applies to non-AALL members only as the recordings are free for AALL members.

The opinions shared during this program represent the views of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect those of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL). Recording, capturing, or using AI tools to duplicate, transcribe, or otherwise reproduce an AALL program in any form is strictly prohibited without prior written consent from AALL. This includes, but is not limited to audio, video, or any other content shared. By accessing an AALL recording, you agree to adhere to this policy.