Accessibility Assessment Project

Course

Research Methods, MLIS 7700

Competence

The competence for this assignment is research.

Learning Outcome (1)

This assignment identifies appropriate research methods, collect, and analyze data to

address issues faced by libraries or other information agencies.

Learning Outcome (2)

This assignment designs, conducts, and reports research that contributes to the body of

professional knowledge and/or theoretical constructs.

Purpose

The purpose of this assignment was to use knowledge of research methods to conduct a small assessment project and communicate the findings. I was required to visit a library and assess the accessibility of the library and then communicate my findings through a presentation and written report.

I chose the Riverdale Library in the Clayton County Library system and found they are wholly unprepared to better serve their disabled populations. They do not provide assistive tools and software in their libraries or on their websites to better aid the disabled demographic. I created recommendations for The Clayton County Library System which includes various updates to their services, website, and the virtual reference desk.

This assignment helped me identify the appropriate research methods, collect, and analyze the data to address those issues faced by the library. I did this by focusing on both physical and technological indicators within the library and both on the library’s computers and the library’s website, using the ALA TechSource Journal, which gave a good starting list on assistive tools which I used to assess accessibility in the library.

I visited the library to gather observations for my research and noted the difficulties disabled people would have to venture to the physical location (which does hold sidewalk curves to allow wheelchair users to enter) to access the full (physical) nature of the library. My visit revealed a lot of challenges regarding access to the computers and a lack of accessibility for the disabled in using the computers. This field research was included in my designing, conducting, and reporting research that contributes to the body of professional knowledge and/or theoretical constructs.

Analysis

For this assignment, I created an accessibility report announcing my findings as well as a PowerPoint presentation summarizing my findings. The results of my research were ultimately that the website of the Riverdale Public Library has more web-based accessibility indicators, however, these indicators are readily available in whatever browser the user is navigating the website on. This is not indicative of any accessibility options the library and the website themselves hold but of the already-available hardware and software-available accessibility tools available on browsers on the Windows Operating System. Ultimately, it became clear that indicators such as braille displays, large keyboards, trackballs, scanning software, and alternative text would not be needed for the graph I made as neither the physical library nor the library website held either in any increment that would make it necessary to add them.

I was eager to conduct field research and learn what I could of the physical space of the library, and I discovered that there were not the necessary accessibility items and technology to assist disabled patrons. Some recommendations I’ve gathered can better assist the library and library system in this county are working with the Georgia Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (GLS) to provide services and access to Kruzweil Readers, visual impairment devices, braille displays, different-sized keyboards, braille, and talking books, and more. This assignment was essential in teaching me how to conduct research to assist libraries in bettering their systems and assisting their communities and was not difficult to conduct, gather, and analyze at all.

Reflection  

This assignment would be done differently in the future as I would use the knowledge I gained regarding conducting research with this assignment to gather more data for whatever I would be researching to assist an information center I worked at. I would perhaps get more involved in the lapses of the service or information processes that are not available to help all patrons, and I would advocate (with a research report) for those changes with the director of the information center.

This report was for the Research Methods, Fall 2021 Semester.