Hi Les
   Thanks for your reply.
   I'm a bit surprised, though, that someone who has been active in Web
research and development activities since we first met at the WWW 1
conference back in 1994 approaches the repository accessibility issue so
negatively - there is "NOTHING" (your emphasis) that can be done; "the only
way to leverage change is to engage support from the publishers".
   I do know that you take matter seriously, but the best way to engage in
change is to believe that change is possible and that a diversity of
approaches can help.
   I feel that the open access movement is sending our very positive
messages to the wider community, and is well placed to build on this by
actively engaging in the accessibility debate.  Such issues can be addressed
from various angles including the ethical position (this is a integral
aspect of open access) to providing a competitive edge over commercial
providers (the University of X's repository provides a range of
accessibility advantages which are not provided by yyy).
   We do need to address these issues.  And remember that IRs aren't the
only Web service which has had to address this issue - clearly VLE providers
(both commercial and Open Source). And arguably there are greater
accessibility challenges for VLEs (interaction, quizzes, authentication,
PowerPoints, Flash, etc. than in repositories of PDF, MS Word or LaTex
documents (excluding data repositories, for now).  Perhaps some of the
solutions or approaches have already been discovered - a quick Google for
"accessibility vles" finds me:

Context of Use
http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/InfoKits/effective-use-of-VLEs/intro-to-VLEs/in
trotovle-special/introtovle-accessibility-features
(let's develop the use case scenarios - and maybe we discount access to a
scholarly paper on a mobile phone)
  	
Virtual learning environments and accessibility for disabled students
http://www.synergy-communications.co.uk/vle-questionnaire/
(let's ask the users)

Towards Accessible Virtual Learning Environments
http://www.techdis.ac.uk/index.php?p=3_8_23
(let's review the main software products and see what can be learnt)

Return to SENDA? Implementing accessibility for disabled students in virtual
learning environments in UK further and higher education
http://www.saradunn.net/VLEreport/
(let's commission a report to look at the bigger picture)

There are two JISC-funded advisory services (JISC Infonet and TechDis)
listed there which have been active in the accessibility area.

And if your research extends further than the first page of hits from
Google, you might find even more useful stuff :-)

Cheers 

Brian

PS Christmas Chain Mail - add at least one approach which can help (my
starter for 10):

Take the ACM template; make it more accessible and encourage staff at your
institution to use it.
Take the ACM template; make it more accessible and return it to ACM and
encourage them to adopt it.
Ensure that training programmes for post-graduate students address the
accessibility of their thesis and not just how to manage the software.
Ensure that staff development programmes for members of staff address the
accessibility of research outputs and not just teaching materials.
Carry out usability testing on your IR software *and* the outputs and ensure
the testing includes people with disabilities.
Let's use the forthcoming release of MS Word 2007 as an opportunity to embed
best practices related to the accessibility of Word documents.
Let's use the forthcoming release of MS Word 2007 ass an opportunity to
promote the Open Office alternative - and ensure we embed best practices
related to the accessibility of ODF documents.
Let's be proud of the accessibility of our IRs - write a press release, and
then explore how those goals can be achieved.
Get researchers in your institution who have disabilities engaged in
discussion and debate.
Speak to your teaching and learning colleagues and discuss with them how
they address accessibility issues for VLEs and learning object repositories.

PPS Regarding your comment "Remember King Canute?" - yes, he was a wise king
and he demonstrated that he was human by showing he couldn't stand up to the
incoming tide.  Stephan is also a wise man and the publishers are now
realising that they can't withstand his tide of emails.  And you are also a
wise man, who won't be able to prevent the tide of Christmas Chain Mail
examples of ways of addressing IR accessibility issues :-)

> On 19 Dec 2006, at 13:37, Brian Kelly wrote:
> 
> > Possibly we could help by setting a standard for templates that we 
> > manage (internal reports, etc), the advice we provide to 
> authors and 
> > the policies we provide for our institutional repositories.
> Remember King Canute?
> 
> There is NOTHING that repository managers can do to influence 
> this, even if they go so far as to implement a policy. And 
> what would such a policy look like? "We will only approve 
> material for deposit that conforms to accessibility guidelines?"
> 
> Don't get me wrong - I take this very seriously. But the only 
> way to leverage change is to engage support from the 
> publishers. Of course, we could always kick up political 
> stink and insist that material bought with public money must 
> be "accessible". and hence put libraries and their 
> acquisition policies at the front line of the battle.
> 
> But in any case, the repository is so far from the action 
> that I don't think it has any possible role to play.
> 
> 
> >    Could WWW 2007 provide an opportunity to engage with the 
> publishers 
> > of the WWW2007 proceedings?- I know last year that the ACM template 
> > was used.
> 
> Believe me I tried that. Very hard. I managed to push through 
> XHTML as a required alternate submission format for WWW2006, 
> (in the face of strong opposition from authors). At the end 
> of the day, the authoring tools simply aren't good enough.
> --
> Les
> 


--------------------------------
Brian Kelly
UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, UK, BA2 7AY
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: +44 1225 383943