Haze in the digital library: design issues hampering accessibility for blind users
| Date | 02 October 2017 |
| Pages | 1052-1065 |
| Published date | 02 October 2017 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-10-2016-0209 |
| Author | Rakesh Babu,Iris Xie |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Haze in the digital library: design
issues hampering accessibility for
blind users
Rakesh Babu and Iris Xie
School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, USA
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this study is to explore design issues hampering the accessibility of digital
libraries(DLs) for first-time blind users.
Design/methodology/approach –A combination of questionnaire,pre-interview, think-aloud and post-
interview methods was used to collect data on non-visual interaction experiences with American Memory
Digital Collection(AMDC) from 15 blind participants. Qualitativeanalysis via open coding revealedrecurring
themes on designproblems and consequent difficulties for blind users in accessingDLs.
Findings –It was found that AMDC is not blind-friendly. Five categories of design problems were
identified. Participantsfaced difficulty perceiving, operating and understanding content and controlsneeded
for informationretrieval.
Research limitations/implications –This paper does not offer a comprehensive set of design issues
prevalentacross DL design models, instead it focuseson design problems observed in a publicly availableDL.
Practical implications –This paper raises awareness of design choices that can unintentionally bar
blind informationseekers from DL access, and further suggests solutions to reduce these design problemsfor
blind users.
Originality/value –The paper’s originality is its identification of unique design problems that prevent
blind usersfrom effectively interacting with DLs.
Keywords Digital libraries, Accessibility, Information retrieval, User studies, Web accessibility,
Systems design, Problems, Adaptive technology, Visually handicapped
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Digital libraries(DLs) have emerged as a new and complex information retrieval(IR) system
affording easy access to a variety of digitized resources (Hariri and Norouzi, 2011).
Consequently, public libraries, museums and other cultural institutions are increasingly
offering digitized collections of images, books, audio-recordings and videos (Matusiak,
2012). DLs have particular significance for blind and visually challenged people, as these
could potentially offset the disadvantage of visually encoded information. However,
realizing this potential is contingent on DL accessibility. Here, accessibility represents the
perceivability, operabilityand understandability of content and features of the DL interface
by listening to the screen-reader(SR) renditions. Blind people predominantly rely on SRs for
non-visual interaction with computers and smartphones. This research is concerned with
DL accessibility for blind information seekers without DL experience. Universal access is
This research was supported by a $150,000 exploratory research grant by the UW Milwaukee’s
Research Growth Initiative.
EL
35,5
1052
Received1 October 2016
Revised1 October 2016
Accepted8 February 2017
TheElectronic Library
Vol.35 No. 5, 2017
pp. 1052-1065
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/EL-10-2016-0209
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
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