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REVIEL: Resources for Visually Impaired Users of the Electronic Library

a British Library and JISC funded project

Introduction

There is increasing concern in society to counter the effects of disability and to ensure that when services are provided they are accessible to all potential users. In the developing information society, this concern is becoming sharply focused by the difficulties which electronic systems present, especially to people with a visual impairment. In education, these issues are prominent in a number of discussion papers, and some institutions have made considerable progress in providing appropriate service responses. The principles behind these developments may be summarised as inclusiveness, equity and independence: visually-impaired people should be included as full users of services through appropriate policies and design; they should have equity of access both to services in general and to information services in particular; they should be able to access and use services independently, without additional intermediaries.

Funded by the British Library and the Joint Information Systems Committee, the REVIEL Project seeks to move forward the provision of information services in the UK. Its primary initial focus is on higher education, though that is then broadened out to other sectors. Its ultimate aim is to promote the development of a national, networked virtual library of resources accessible by, and where necessary designed for, people with serious sight problems, together with an advisory service for service developers and providers.

The REVIEL Project began in February 1997, when CERLIM was based at the University of Central Lancashire, and was completed at the end of March 1999 at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Objectives

1. To survey and report on the current state of information-access support services for visually impaired people in UK higher education.
2. To quantify and typify the materials created by and held by UK universities in formats suitable for people with visual impairments (e.g. braille, audio) and to study the degree of overlap of those resources.
3. To study and report on the appropriateness of selected common service interfaces (e.g. JISC services).
4. To identify key resources and advisory services for service designers and developers so as to encourage good design principles in interface and service design.
5. To study and report on the feasibility of networking the resources identified, and in particular on the standards, bandwidth and end-user implications.
6. To recommend further actions.

Methodology

Phase 1: An email survey of all higher education institutions in the UK to identify which offer a specific library/information support service for students and staff with a visual impairment. This resulted in follow-up interviews with staff of selected institutions which have developed such services.

Phase 2: A workshop designed (a) to bring together a group of experts in the field to discuss the preliminary findings, (b) to identify specific expertise and secure involvement in future phases of the Project, (c) to begin the process of dissemination.

Phase 3: A study of the advice currently available to service & system designers concerning good design principles. Much of this information can be found from Internet sources (e.g. both Microsoft and Apple maintain specific pages on these issues) but the Project team has also drawn on expertise at UK sites.

Phase 4: Analysis of some of the existing services available to UK higher education from the viewpoint of access by visually-impaired people, together with discussion with service providers. The outcome has provided critical guidelines applicable to service design.

Phase 5: Analysis of the standards being used for encoding materials in specific formats (e.g. audio, braille) by institutions. Particular attention was paid to the suitability of the standards used for the networked environment which lead to a set of recommendations on standards.

Phase 6: Examination of the bibliographic standards being used to describe these materials. Co-ordination with the PIP enabled the effort on this Phase to be minimised.

Phase 7: A detailed study of the feasibility of developing a virtual library of networked resources in formats suitable for persons with a visual impairment.

Phase 8: Dissemination and exploitation of the findings. A Library Association Executive Briefing was held in July 1999 to describe and discuss results and explore the major issues.

The final report is published as: The Integrated Accessible Library: A model of service development for the 21st century.

Relevant papers published in this area include:

Brophy, P. and Craven, J. Education for all? Library Technology: Assistive Technologies Special Issue, 4 (1), February, 1999, pp. 19-20.

Brophy, P. The integrated accessible library: building a national accessible library service. Library HiTech News, Number 164, July 1999, pp.15-17.

Craven, J. Lifting barriers to lifelong learning. In Brophy, P., Fisher, S., Clark, Z., eds Libraries without walls: the delivery of library services to distant users: proceedings of the 3rd Libraries Without Walls Conference, 11 - 13 September 1999. London: Library Assoication 2000.

Further Information, Please contact:

Jenny Craven, Research Associate,
Centre for Research in Library and Information Management (CERLIM),
Manchester Metropolitan University, Dept. of Information and Communications,
Geoffrey Manton Building, Rosamond Street West,
Manchester M15 6LL UK

Tel +44 (0)161 247 6142
Fax +44 (0)161 247 6979
Email: j.craven@mmu.ac.uk or p.brophy@mmu.ac.uk