The library is working toward achieving accessibility across its areas. The recent focus of accessibility has been on electronic resources the library contracts with vendors for research guides and internet access to books, articles and other media. Accessibility measures benefit all students and supports the Academic Master Plans’s Preparation and Success, student Experience and Virtualization. The impact of accessible material is a benefit for all students as all academic areas use the library’s resources for their assignments. Resource vendors provide voluntary reports detailing how their systems meet accessibility standards. As reports are generated by the vendors the reports are downloaded and archived. Prior to contracting the library staff review the report to assure the resources will be accessible.
The next area to improve accessibility is the library’s interlibrary loan systems. The library shares books and articles with other public and academic libraries, inside and outside SUNY. Interlibrary loan goes both directions and serves the college’s goals of engage learners, establish public partnerships and promote student growth. The current scanning system and software does not create accessible documents. Those using screen readers to navigate the document we send are unable to skip to chapters, headings or specific pages. A scanner and software that can create accessible PDF documents is needed to achieve this goal. Scanner and software set up can be accomplished by ITS and interlibrary loan staff can prepare the documents based on the specific item being scanned. It is expected that staff can be trained to use the scanner and software in a short training period.