As web accessibility initiatives increase across institutions, it is important not only to reframe and rethink policies, but also to develop sustainable and tenable methods for enforcing accessibility efforts. For institutional repositories, it is imperative to determine the extent to which both the repository manager and the user are responsible for depositing accessible content. This presentation allows us to share our accessibility framework and help repository and content managers craft sustainable, long-term goals for accessible content in institutional repositories, while also providing openly available resources for short-term benefit.
Indiana University’s institutional repository, IUScholarWorks, audited the accessibility of its existing content and created policies to encourage accessible submissions. No established workflows considering accessibility existed when this audit took place, and no additional resources were allocated to facilitate this shift in focus. As a result, the Scholarly Communication team altered the repository submission workflow to encourage authors to make their finished documents accessible with limited intervention.
We identified a spectrum of accessibility services, ranging from applying nascent accessibility practices to implementing long term solutions. When initiating new policies, responsibility for accessibility will often fall more heavily upon the user, while ideal practices aim to be more collaborative in nature. Initially, instead of concentrating resources on retroactively deleting non-accessible content, we focused on our submission process, which we believe emphasizes the importance of depositing accessible documents. We created guidelines that allow users to add basic accessibility improvements without needing to significantly restructure or rewrite their document. Our guidelines provide “quick fixes” that authors can easily implement to their finished documents prior to submission, including adding structural tags and alt text, clearly labeling lists, and identifying document language. Moving forward, we aim to implement ideal accessibility standards for deposited work, regardless of format or origin.
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