About
This project for the University of Alabama's course "CIS-650: Diversity Leadership in Information Organizations" is a review of public library outreach to the patrons living with disabilities of the United States, and ways in which the High Plains Library District of northern Colorado addresses this community's needs. I am Greg Mahaffey, an employee at two of HPLD's member libraries. This page focuses on research on library accessibility and local resources for patrons with disabilities in Weld County.
Research
Lechtenberg & Gold (2024) provide insight into current accessibility guidelines for government sites. The paper offers concise insight into the requirements expected of websites and offers suggestions for evaluation tools to ensure that a library's website is up to modern standards, ensuring that patrons will not be turned away by a website that is needlessly challenging to navigate.
Lechtenberg, U., & Gold, H. (2024). Beyond the Minimum: New Rule Requires Web Content (I’m Looking at You, LibGuides) to Meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA Standards. Information Technology and Libraries, 43(4). https://doi.org/10.5860/ital.v43i4.17312
Daskalakes & Cahill (2024) discusses the interviews of various librarians who participate in children’s storytime, discussing accommodations for children with cognitive disabilities and developmental disabilities. These conversations discuss possible reasons for low attendance, children’s reactions being the standard metric for success, and the critical importance of outside assistance when educating oneself about accommodations for different disabilities, a philosophy the disabled community often simplifies to "Nothing about us without us." It also considers reactive vs proactive accommodation (as in special storytimes for select groups) and the potential marginalization that can occur in the presence of such programs.
Derek T. M. Daskalakes, & Maria Cahill. (2024). “We’re All Pretty Welcoming”: Inclusion of Children with Disabilities in Library Storytime Programs. Journal of Early Intervention, 46(3), 407–427. https://doi.org/10.1177/10538151231176193
Michalak, R., & Rysavy, M. D. T. (2020) discuss the importance of empathy when handling outreach to patrons with disabilities, as some patrons with impairments may hesitate to reach out to library staff. Their article also stresses the importance of bringing in feedback from patrons on accessibility, as it is a certain way to identify shortcomings in service. Despite covering students at an academic library, it has lessons that are applicable in our public library.
Michalak, R., & Rysavy, M. D. T. (2020). Assessing the Accessibility of Library Tools & Services When You Aren’t an Accessibility Expert: Part 2. Journal of Library Administration, 60(3), 295–300. https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2020.1727283
Web Resources
Weld County government website: Notice Under the Americans with Disabilities Act
Weld County provides a resource for information about the Americans with Disabilities Act, including a rundown of citizens’ rights and access to the form required to lodge a complaint. Information about the county’s ADA coordinator, including contact information, is available. The website is keyboard accessible. However, it should be pointed out that the website’s other page for Accessibility and ADA information is blank and may cause confusion among those navigating the website.
Weld County, CO. (n.d.) Notice Under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Retrieved February 17, 2025 from https://www.weld.gov/Government/Departments/Finance-and-Administration/Notice-Under-the-Americans-with-Disabilities-Act
WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool
Developed by the University of Utah's "Web Accessibility in Mind" (WebAIM) group, the WAVE evaluation tool provides an automatic test of webpage's accessibility, from everything including assistive technology coding to font size and contrast. The tool provides point-by-point review of each error found and links to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) pertinent to the error.
Utah State University. (n.d.). WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools. WebAIM. https://wave.webaim.org/
WebAIM - Web Accessibility in Mind. (2020, April 9). Introduction to WAVE [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITUDiTgAZY0
Making Events Accessible Checklist
The Website Accessibility Initiative (WAI) from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) offers comprehensive advice on online accessibility. A standout resource they provide is a checklist for making both online and in-person events accessible to participants with a myriad of impairments. This checklist provides step-by-step advice on how to make events navigable for anyone, whether impairments are visual, auditory, physical, cognitive, or speech related.
Making Events Accessible: Checklist for meetings, conferences, training, and presentations that are remote/virtual, in-person, or hybrid. (n.d.) Website Accessibility Initiative. Retrieved February 17, 2025 from https://www.w3.org/WAI/teach-advocate/accessible-presentations/