Adaptive Technology at DCPL

The Worldwide Web is a marvel of technology and has made access to information as simple as a click of a mouse or a stroke on a keyboard--that is, as long as you have no visual, hearing, mental, or physical impairments. For those who fall in this camp, all is not lost, however: HTML coding and  assistive technology allow those with disabilities to access the web. And those who become disabled later in life--that is, who do not learn to use such assistive technologies in a school setting--have an invaluable resource in the public library.

The DC Public Library is at the forefront in offering assistive technology to its users. As the DC regional library for the blind and physically handicapped, it offers braille-print materials and playback machines for audio materials. But, as exhibited by Patrick Timony, Chris Corrigan, and Janice Rosen during a site visit November 7, the DCPL's Adaptive Services Division offers so much more.

As Timony explained, libraries have the mission of bridging the gap between those who have information and those who don't; this becomes more challenging when some patrons have special needs, but the DCPL achieves its mission by offering an array of programs and services for people with mental and physical disabilities.

For example, every day Corrigan teaches a class on how to use the JAWS screen readers available at the library: this software allows computers to read aloud the content of web pages for users with low or no vision. And Rosen, who has worked at DCPL since 1992 as a librarian for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, described the many services for this group: American Sign Language (ASL) classes, ASL interpreting, tactile ASL for the deaf and blind, assistive listening devices and systems in the library, and captioning of all films shown at the library.

However, the services are not just technical, but social: DCPL hosts a monthly book club, a game night, and gaming stations through a partnership with the AbleGamers Foundation, as well as monthly Accessibility Meetups; weekly technology training sessions; and a DIY (Do it Yourself) Fair for people with and without disabilities. By bringing together vendors and users in this community, the library facilitates an ongoing conversation about the users' needs, and how technology can be developed to address them.

This last example illustrates what the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) calls essential in achieving web accessibility for all: collaboration among the different components. That is, in order for a site to be web accessible, the content of the site--both the words and images and the markup language that structures it, the users, developers, authors, evaluators, and technology all must work together. Another example: the JAWS screen reader program. As explained by Corrigan, this software relies on HTML code to structure the web page content in headers and supply alternative text for images and links. If the author of the page has done his or her part in the HTML code, and the user knows how to use the software, the screen reader will voice the headings and subheadings on the page and allow the user to navigate the site with keyboard commands.

Corrigan cited the sobering statistic that 90% of blind people who can read braille are employed, while 70% of blind people who cannot read braille are unemployed. This fact makes all the clearer the importance of technology--whether low-tech ASL or braille or hi-tech JAWS readers--in helping bridge the gap among the disabled between those who can work and those who cannot. But as the WAI points out, technology is not the only answer. It is people working together: users, authors, developers, and evaluators, who build and use this technology and share successes. And the DCPL is doing its part on all fronts.

                                                              Photo: Northwest Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center