TY - JOUR AB - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify important principles which should be applied to electronic library websites to make them usable for all people.Design/methodology/approach The goal of this paper was to make the simplified user interface of Hungarian Electronic Library (VMEK) more accessible and usable by leveraging the latest technologies, standards and recommendations. Vision-impaired and motor-disabled people were also involved in brainstorming and collecting ideas during the design phase and in testing the implemented website.Findings This paper showed that the perspicuity of the Web page is greatly improved by semantically correct HTML codes, clearly defined links and alt attributes, hotkeys and typographic principles.Practical implications The paper presents the design principles of electronic library Web pages which can be applied by Web developers and content managers. The paper identifies design principles, which improve the perspicuity of user interfaces to a great extent (especially in the case of blind users); draws attention to the typographic principles, which promote reading and understanding documents; and recommends guidelines for developing electronic library home pages and managing the content of these home pages.Originality/value This paper bridges the gap between the information and library science field and the Web accessibility and usability field. Based on brainstorming results where people with various kinds of disabilities were involved, the paper gives 11 recommendations which should be taken into account while designing and developing electronic library websites to ensure equal access to their services and documents. VL - 36 IS - 4 SN - 0264-0473 DO - 10.1108/EL-07-2017-0143 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-07-2017-0143 AU - Kosztyánné Mátrai Rita PY - 2018 Y1 - 2018/01/01 TI - How to make an electronic library accessible T2 - The Electronic Library PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 620 EP - 632 Y2 - 2024/04/19 ER -