Universal Accessibility Interest Group

1. That can be time consuming, especially if the user is not already registered with one or the other.  The Library content is supposed to be accessible at the outset. Of course, full text often is not accessible, especially with DRM ebooks, so I want to try to eliminate barriers as much as possible.  
2. If I send them directly to Bookshare or Disability Office, it's unlikely the quality of Bookshare's file will be checked but we're supposed to be trying to meet WCAG 2.2 (due to state regulation for us, but other libraries are probably concerned about WCAG for April).  If we could access the file, we could do some remediation if needed.
3. Some of the library's DRM protected e-books are used as course material and the new federal law emphasizes accessibility of course material.   

------------------------------
Adina Mulliken
Social Work Subject Specialist & Associate Professor
Hunter College, CUNY
New York, NY
She/Her/Hers,They/Them/Theirs
am2621@hunter.cuny.edu
(212) 396-7665
------------------------------

Hi Adina,

I wish I had some good advice for you! 

The only possible solution I can think of would be to see if you can license a more accessible or DRM-free version of the book  through another platform or directly from the publisher.  That just might put you in a better starting position for any additional remediation. I recognize this solution may not fit into your budget or collection development policies and it could quickly become expensive, if it becomes the norm. It also assumes that an accessible and/or DRM-free version is available.

At my institution we don't, as far as I know, have anyone in the library who acts as a "sponsor" on our institution's Bookshare account.  That might be something that we should look into at some point.

We would most likely refer a student to our accessibility services department for help with remediation if the books was assigned as a textbook. Otherwise, the library would handle the remediation request.

I hope you find a workable solution and that you share your success here!

Best,
Karen

------------------------------
Karen Grondin
Licensing Librarian
Arizona State University Library
She/Her/Hers
------------------------------

I thought I had replied to both of you (Karen and Anaya) to say thank you for replying.  Also to respond to Karen that we do try to get DRM free books when they're available and not astronomically more expensive, but most the time they don't meet that criteria according to our Acquisitions Specialist (and based on my less thorough searching for e-books).  Anyway, I'm on the ALA Connect interface now and it looks like my thank you might not have gone through, so am putting it here.

------------------------------
Adina Mulliken
Social Work Subject Specialist & Associate Professor
Hunter College, CUNY
New York, NY
She/Her/Hers,They/Them/Theirs
am2621@hunter.cuny.edu
(212) 396-7665
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Sep 30, 2025 02:41 PM
From: Karen Grondin
Subject: librarian access to Bookshare

Hi Adina,

I wish I had some good advice for you! 

The only possible solution I can think of would be to see if you can license a more accessible or DRM-free version of the book  through another platform or directly from the publisher.  That just might put you in a better starting position for any additional remediation. I recognize this solution may not fit into your budget or collection development policies and it could quickly become expensive, if it becomes the norm. It also assumes that an accessible and/or DRM-free version is available.

At my institution we don't, as far as I know, have anyone in the library who acts as a "sponsor" on our institution's Bookshare account.  That might be something that we should look into at some point.

We would most likely refer a student to our accessibility services department for help with remediation if the books was assigned as a textbook. Otherwise, the library would handle the remediation request.

I hope you find a workable solution and that you share your success here!

Best,
Karen

------------------------------
Karen Grondin
Licensing Librarian
Arizona State University Library
She/Her/Hers
------------------------------

For what it's worth, thought I'd share that I have access to Bookshare now :).  I heard from a librarian on another listserv that she does have access on behalf of her library. 

Looks like it's pretty easy to add a user to Bookshare and "assign" books to the user so they can then log into Bookshare and access the book.  The one book we needed seems pretty good as it is, as Anaya suggested.  I haven't yet figured out how I can access a booksto see if it needs to be remediated (in a way that we would be capable of doing), but haven't had time to try yet.   I did see in Bookshare's documentation that remediation is permitted.

------------------------------
Adina Mulliken
Social Work Subject Specialist & Associate Professor
Hunter College, CUNY
New York, NY
She/Her/Hers,They/Them/Theirs
am2621@hunter.cuny.edu
(212) 396-7665
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Oct 01, 2025 09:06 AM
From: Anaya Jones
Subject: librarian access to Bookshare

Having worked with the Bookshare folks, I have some faith that the files should be in good shape- but as for your original question- no, a librarian has never been a sponsor at a library where I've worked.

 

Anaya Jones (she/her) MLIS, CPACC, Trusted Tester

Accessibility & Online Learning Librarian

Northeastern University Library

ana.jones@northeastern.edu

Book a consultation with me

 

Original Message:
Sent: 10/10/2025 1:32:00 PM
From: Adina Mulliken
Subject: RE: librarian access to Bookshare

For what it's worth, thought I'd share that I have access to Bookshare now :).  I heard from a librarian on another listserv that she does have access on behalf of her library. 

Looks like it's pretty easy to add a user to Bookshare and "assign" books to the user so they can then log into Bookshare and access the book.  The one book we needed seems pretty good as it is, as Anaya suggested.  I haven't yet figured out how I can access a booksto see if it needs to be remediated (in a way that we would be capable of doing), but haven't had time to try yet.   I did see in Bookshare's documentation that remediation is permitted.

------------------------------
Adina Mulliken
Social Work Subject Specialist & Associate Professor
Hunter College, CUNY
New York, NY
She/Her/Hers,They/Them/Theirs
am2621@hunter.cuny.edu
(212) 396-7665
------------------------------