Meeting/Teleconference Details

• Initial meeting with Ex Libris; finding ways to improve collaboration

CARLI/Ex Libris Accessibility Teleconference 05/08/2007
Scribe: Linda Voyles & Hadi Rangin

Next meeting

• Date: June 15, 2007 (tenetive; not scheduled yet)
• Ttime: 10:00 AM CDT; 9:00 AM CDT; 8:00 AM MDT; 7:00 AM PDT
• Phone: 866-261-9402 (Conference code: 272681); not setup yet

Participants

• Linda Voyles, Ex Libris
• Mike Dicus, Ex Libris
• Paige Weston, CARLI
• Jonathan Gorman, CARLI
• Connie Walsh, CARLI
• Susan Singleton, CARLI
• Jon Gunderson, UIUC
• Hadi Rangin, UIUC

Discussion

Plans for Voyager 7

Due to confidentiality and company's concerns, the upcoming improvements/enhancements of Voyager 7 cannot be made available to public. However, members of the CARLI/Ex Libris Accessibility list can access the information at the secure area of the CARLI Access home page. Please contact Hadi Rangin (e-mail: hadi@uiuc.edu) or Paige West (e-mail: weston1@uiuc.edu) for username/password. If you have been already granted access to this document, please go to Plans for Voyager 7

Major issues with Voyager 6

CARLI and the UIUC accessibility team have done extensive testing with other software vendors like Blackboard, WebCt, EBSCO etc . The main accessibility concerns with current functionality in Voyager 6.1 Web Voyage are:

• Navigation and Orientation; e.g. title element (the title is the same for a results page as the title display page so the user does not know where they are), missing form control, missing headings and structure, data table, etc.
• Styling - e.g. user can't change to high contrast if needed
• For all recorded accessibility issues with Voyager 6 go to Issue list

Functional accessibility

It was noted that W3C standards on accessibility are very involved and abstract so its hard to follow for non experts. 508 is more understandable but being 508 compliant does not mean that the software is functionally accessible. An example of functional accessibility is when content changes from one language to another (e.g. German descriptions in an English record). This should be flagged at the level it appears, but that requirement is not covered in the 508 guidelines.

The UIUC team recommended using FireFox accessibility Extension and Functional Accessibility Evaluator for testing 508 compliance and offered to test Voyager 7 using their software.

The impact of earlier access in testing will need to be balanced to maintain the overall Voyager 7 release schedule, as will any expanded work beyond current resource plans for 508 compliance. Depending on the scope of the work, some issues related to functional accessibility may be slotted for later versions of Voyager planned for later in 2008.

Action Item

• Paige will send the UIUC test report on Web Voyage accessibility to Linda. A post call request from Ex Libris Development staff is to have a cover sheet listing the relative priorities within the report. What are most important issues to address within the priority areas?
• Paige will share the URL's that list the UIUC Best Practices on functional accessibility along with details on two UIUC accessibility development training sessions on May 22-23 and June 12-13 in Urbana.
• Linda and Mike to determine if we can make a Voyager 7 database available for testing early in the coding or QA process, and determine options to have accessibility input earlier in the process than field test.
• The CARLI team will share updates on plans via controlled websites and add Linda and Mike to accessibility mailing list for UIUC.
• Linda will schedule a follow up call June 14-15 to determine next steps with development team.