Apologies for cross posting!
Thanks to the hard work of Debra Riley-Huff and others over the past few years, a website named Libraries for Universal Accessibility has been launched http://www.uniaccessig.org/universal/ .
We are having a virtual conference call July 8 from 3-5pm Eastern, 2-4 Central, 1-3 Mountain, 12-2 Pacific time to introduce the site and discuss ways to contribute.
Phone number: 1-866-683-3261.
Everyone who is interested is welcome to join. In the very unlikely event that we exceed the 30 person limit on the call, we will schedule another time for anyone who did not get in. Participation in the meeting is not required to participate in the website; however, during the meeting we will discuss ways to participate and address questions that anyone has, as well as discussing upcoming changes to the site. It will be helpful to have internet access during the call if possible, so that you can follow along on the site.
After conversation with Chris and Alec during the conference, I believe this call is accessible for everyone, using a Sorenson phone for those who need. However, again, please do let me know if anyone is aware of any accessibility issues with this. I will be away until Monday, but will still do what I can.
The purpose of the site is for librarians, library users with disabilities, and other interested people to communicate about accessibility of library resources, in order to educate the library community and potentially guide librarians as we select products. We are looking for volunteers who can contribute comments about accessibility or usability of a library resource.
There are many ways to participate, for people with and without disabilities, and for people with very beginner to expert technical expertise. Below are suggestions for types of comments one might contribute to the site.
- Search on the website of the library resource, or its vendor or creator, for information about accessibility. State whether you were able to find information and provide links if available.
- State whether you found some helpful (or missing, or unhelpful) alt text or other descriptions of images, tables, graphs, etc.
- “I routinely use Zoomtext screen enlarger and I found the results page in this resource to be very easy to use (or very confusing). I found it to be clear (or confusing) because I did not (or did) get lost (or mention any specific helpful/difficult features).”
- “I found captions (or lack of captions) in the videos I viewed in this resource. Name or describe disability identity if desired, such as: I am hearing (or Deaf or a person with a cognitive disability, etc.). Comment on the quality of the captioning from your point of view and give examples if desired.”
We are still making changes to the site, particularly the explanations of how to do a Review on the website. (Some of the explanations suggest that more comprehensive reviews are expected, but that is not required.)
Details about the conference call:
MEET ME CONFERENCE CALL
Hello,
This is just to confirm your scheduled Meet Me Conf call on 7/8 at 3 pm. The numbers you will use to call in are:
( on campus ) 2-9755
( International ) 1-315-442-9755
( toll free ) 1-866-683-3261. ( you can call the toll free or 442 number from home )
Instructions/Helpful hints:
- Each participant may call in from any telephone at their location.
- When the first person calls in, the line will continuously ring until another person calls in.
Then they will automatically connect in and you will be able to speak.
- If there are any participants calling in internationally, they will have to use the 442 number provided above.
- You may have up to 30 participants on the call.
***PLEASE NOTE***
IF ANY PARTICIPANT PRESSES THEIR HOLD/FLASH KEY ON THEIR PHONES DURING THE CALL, THIS WILL RESULT IN GIVING ANY OTHER FUTURE CALLERS A BUSY SIGNAL, THEREFORE LOCKING THEM OUT OF THE CALL***
Callers cannot be transferred into a meet me conference call…. If a caller is transferred into the call they will receive a rapid busy signal. The caller needs to dial directly into the call.