Accessibility in Scholarly Communication
Scholarly communication librarians and practitioners have increasingly joined the call for improved web accessibility. The following are only a sampling of recent work in open education, journal publishing, and institutional repositories:
- Laurie Borchard, et al (2015) critiqued the accessibility of Open Journal Systems. Maria Hallo, et al (2017) identified similar issues in Latin American open access publishing.
- Alexa Ramirez-Vega (2017), Wendy Walker and Teressa Keenan (2015), Caitlin Carter (2016), Suzanna Conrad and Alyssa Loera (2019), Ramani Sahu and Lambodara Parabhoi (2019), Laura Waugh, et al (2020), and Talea Anderson and Chelsea Leachman (2020) examined accessibility in institutional repositories.
- Raizel Liebler and Gregory Cunningham (2019) explained the legal reasons why open access repositories should be accessible to all.
- Jaspreet Singh, et al (2015), Silvia da Rosa and Regina Motz (2016), Michelle Reed and Ciara Turner (2018), Christopher Barnes (2018), Rosa Navarrete and Sergio Luján-Mora (2018), Elias, et al (2020). And Zhang, et al (2020) have considered the accessibility of open educational resources and associated tools.
This listing of resources only scratches the surface of topics that scholarly communication practitioners could consider while implementing accessibility practices. All the same, many of these studies point out gaps in our policies and practices when it comes to ensuring accessibility. In the remainder of this book, we’ll consider a variety of case studies that show how some are incorporating accessibility into their work. These studies fall under the following headings:
- Planning: What policies, user-centered practices, and author engagement strategies can inform accessibility work?
- Administering: How can platforms/systems be audited for accessibility? What workflows, assessments, and staffing choices can support this work?
- Media, Data, and STEM resources: What are unique considerations to take into account for these materials?
- Advocacy: How can libraries and librarians collaboratively advocate for change?
- Learning: Where can you go to find out more?
