Dear all,

We wanted to quickly update you all on the progress of the eBook accessibility audit that is currently underway. We have been absolutely delighted by the response we have had so far from colleagues across the sector with many platform audits already undertaken and completed. The power in a project like this comes wholly from our collaboration as a community and there is still time for people to sign up to help in the quest to improve the accessibility of eBook platforms.

The eBook accessibility audit seeks to benchmark accessibility in eBook platforms by focussing on key areas of practical user experience to measure basic accessibility functionality and guide targeted platform improvement. The audit is a "non-technical" accessibility survey restricted to things that can be quickly and easily checked by a non-specialist. The audit focuses on eBooks supplied to the education sector in the United Kingdom (rather than books for mainstream commercial consumption e.g. popular fiction). The key thing the project is trying to achieve is to make the accessibility features in any platform as transparent as possible. More information can be found on the project web pages.

We are looking for people to volunteer to test eBook platforms and you have until the end of August to sign up. Please sign up using the eBook accessibility audit signup sheet. If you don’t feel able to commit to testing two different platforms then you can just sign up to one.

Once you have signed up, please begin auditing your platforms and completing the audit form. We are hoping to have the audit completed by the end of August but if this will be a problem for anyone please let us know.

More information about the audit and the support available can be found on the project web pages. Please see below for support available to you whilst completing the audit:

· Check this Hints and Tips document which includes video demos for some questions.

· Post a question to Lis-Accessibility mailing group. Others can then benefit from seeing the answer

· Or ask an “off-list” question to [log in to unmask]. If we think your question will be useful to others we will anonymise it and share it via Lis-Accessibility.

Thanks again for taking part.

Ben Watson, Ruth MacMullen, Sue Smith, Vicky Dobson, Gopal Dutta, Geraldine Smith, Alistair McNaught, Jane Cooke

From: A general library and information science list for news and discussion. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dobson, Victoria
Sent: 09 August 2016 09:50
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: eBook accessibility audit (UK Higher Education) request for help

Dear all,

You may be aware that a collaborative eBook accessibility project is currently underway across UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) disability and library services. The eBook accessibility audit seeks to benchmark accessibility in eBook platforms by focussing on key areas of practical user experience to measure basic accessibility functionality and guide targeted platform improvement. The audit is a "non-technical" accessibility survey restricted to things that can be quickly and easily checked by a non-specialist. The audit focuses on eBooks supplied to the education sector in the United Kingdom (rather than books for mainstream commercial consumption e.g. popular fiction). The key thing the project is trying to achieve is to make the accessibility features in any platform as transparent as possible. More information can be found on the project web pages.

More information about the audit and the support available can be found on the project web pages. Please see below for support available to you whilst completing the audit:

· Check this Hints and Tips document which includes video demos for some questions.

· Post a question to Lis-Accessibility mailing group. Others can then benefit from seeing the answer

· Or ask an “off-list” question to [log in to unmask]. If we think your question will be useful to others we will anonymise it and share it via Lis-Accessibility.

Thanks again for taking part, happy auditing!

Ben Watson, Ruth MacMullen, Sue Smith, Vicky Dobson, Gopal Dutta, Geraldine Smith, Alistair McNaught, Jane Cooke

From: Discussion of accessibility and accessible resource provision in libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ben Watson
Sent: 19 July 2016 16:42
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: eBook accessibility audit (UK Higher Education) request for help
Importance: High

Dear all,

We have been working very closely with publishers to respond to their feedback about the eBook Accessibility Audit and are now ready for people to help us by signing up to test two eBook platforms. We would like two universities to test each platform alongside the platform publisher (who will test in parallel). The outcome of the tests will be published centrally in order that we can benchmark accessibility in eBook platforms by measuring basic accessibility functionality.

We really need your help in this. The Publisher’s Association have endorsed the work we are doing and we have found individual publishers to be very receptive to what we are trying to achieve. What we need now is each university to commit to test two platforms to help us provide comparative data.

You can sign up to claim a platform using the eBook accessibility audit signup sheet (just enter your university name and email address in the appropriate columns). The platforms featured on the list are based on the feedback we have received from various lists about the platforms that are most well-used in the sector and also represent publishers who have asked for their platforms to be included.

We have found that undertaking the audit is really helpful for professional development as it makes it clear what accessibility barriers look like so that we can all be better prepared to watch out for them in everything we procure or design in-house.

More information about the audit and the support available can be found on the project web pages.

At this stage we just want people to sign up to claim their two eBook platforms. Please don’t start testing just yet - we will be launching the audit next week once we have finished our final checks.

Best regards,

Ben Watson, Ruth MacMullen, Sue Smith, Vicky Dobson, Gopal Dutta, Geraldine Smith, Alistair McNaught, Jane Cooke.

From: Discussion of accessibility and accessible resource provision in libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ben Watson
Sent: 20 June 2016 11:45
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Database accessibility

Dear lis-accessibility colleagues

Thank you for your responses to our request for help refining the list of questions that formed the eBook audit. We have had a fantastic response and lots of really useful feedback that has informed our thinking (we will shortly be publishing a final version of the eBook Accessibility Audit tool).The tool has also been circulated to publishers for feedback and we have already had some really positive responses.

In order that we can focus the testing on the most well-used eBook platforms first (given that it is unlikely that we will cover all 130 platforms in the list straight away) we need your help to prioritise the platforms for testing. It would be really helpful if you could rank your top 10 most well-used databases by editing the list at the following link: http://bit.ly/28IsXgJ

We will use this information to create a revised list of the most well-used platforms to ensure we are focusing our energies as effectively as possible and starting with the most well-used platforms.

More instruction on undertaking the audit will follow once we have finalised the revised list of the most well-us platforms.

It would be brilliant if we could have your feedback by the end of Monday 27th June.

Best regards,

Ben Watson, Ruth MacMullen, Sue Smith, Vicky Dobson, Gopal Dutta, Geraldine Smith, Alistair McNaught, Jane Cooke.

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