Imagine that a newly built public building doesn’t have step free access. Instead, a flight of stairs leads to the front door. The building exists for everyone to use but can’t be accessed by everyone because the stairs are a barrier. People using wheelchairs, other mobility devices, or pushchairs are all excluded. Digital content accessibility can be thought of in the same way. Just because a document has been published online doesn’t mean it can be used by everyone.<\/p>\n
There is no doubt that creating accessible digital content is a good thing. Even if U.K. law didn\u2019t now require public sector organisations to maximise their digital content accessibility it would still be the right thing to do. However, whilst we are passionate and proactive about embedding accessible and inclusive practices it hasn\u2019t always been easy.<\/p>\n
Here we explore the ups and downs of transforming documents from our institutional repository to maximise their accessibility, so they can be used by everyone.<\/p>\n
Our institutional repository (known as KAR<\/a>) is where University of Kent researchers archive and share their publications and other research works. In September 2020 we added a clickable button to all open files in KAR so anyone can request an accessible version of the work.<\/p>\n We decided to adopt this reactive approach to accessibility because we don\u2019t have the resources to proactively improve the digital accessibility of all 56,000 (and growing) records in our repository.\u00a0Find out more about how we developed this accessibility process<\/a>.<\/p>\n We now receive accessibility requests every week. First, we confirm that the request is definitely needed. Accessibility can mean different things to different people so, by explaining that it is reformatted so that it can be used with assistive technologies, we ensure we are meeting the users need.<\/p>\n Once the accessibility request is confirmed we start by uploading a Word format of the document to Blackboard Ally. This software\/application helps us to gauge the current accessibly of the document by giving a percentage measure and suggesting how we can raise that score. So far most documents have scored between 20% and 43% accessible which is very low.<\/p>\n We start to improve the overall accessibility of the document which can involve adding or editing:<\/p>\n The time it takes to reformat a digital document to maximise its accessibility varies hugely depending on the type of document. So far a single document has taken anything from just five minutes and up to three weeks. The amount of time it takes varies so much because we are working with multiple document types that have different contents, are formatted with contrasting structures, vary in length, and range in their level of subject complexity, and which are originally created by authors and publishers.<\/p>\n Five minutes is the quickest we\u2019ve been able to fully reformat a document.\u00a0 It was a nine-page, chiefly text-based article, with a structure that was straightforward to follow. We improved the document by:<\/p>\n The accessibility score increased from 48% to 100%.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n When our first thesis accessibility request arrived recently, we knew it was going to take a little longer but we had no idea just how complicated it would be.<\/p>\n Thesis\u00a0are produced by Master and Doctoral students at the end of their studies and can be large documents that contain text, diagrams, images, tables, scientific formulas, and other complex content.<\/p>\n The first thesis accessibility request we received was for a 186-page document that was just 47% accessible. Testing revealed some of the key accessibility issues:<\/p>\n This information, however, did not reveal every accessibility problem.<\/p>\n Why did it take us three weeks to fix four issues?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Here are some of the issues that took a long time to address but were not identified by the accessibility testing software:<\/p>\n We are starting a project to advocate for and develop accessible thesis templates which we can roll out from September 2022.<\/p>\n Our ambition is that all theses are published to the institutional repository as fully accessible documents and that the students are supported to do this beyond the current training offer. This is being project managed, due to the interdisciplinary collaboration required between Information Services, Graduate and Researcher College, Student Support and Wellbeing, the Divisions and the Schools within these, Executive Group and the students themselves.<\/p>\n We have found that testing the accessibility of digital works requested from our repository does work. However, we must make our own judgements otherwise we will fail to provide a fully accessible and meaningful format.<\/p>\n There have been unanticipated benefits to taking a reactive approach to responding to accessibility requests. The limitations of testing are a good example of this and means that we can constantly improve our understanding and the service we offer.<\/p>\n We are lucky to have \u2018accessibility-expert\u2019 support from Ben and Nik (Student Support and Wellbeing). This network is vital to keep ahead of changes to the law, to develop our skills, and find solutions to new challenges. We\u2019re also happy to answer any questions you may have about our process and have already worked with several institutions to do this.<\/p>\n If you would like to talk to us about this, or any of the other topics covered in our\u00a0<\/em>Accessibility and Inclusion News Blog Series<\/em><\/a>, please\u00a0<\/em>contact the Research and Scholarly Communication Support Team.<\/em><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Overview of an accessibility request<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n
How long does it take?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Five-minute wonder<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n
Three-week thesis<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
Next steps<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Recommendations<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Keep an open mind when testing<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Learn and improve<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Get support<\/strong><\/h3>\n