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The purpose of this paper is to explore a topic where blind participants expressed significant concern: obtaining full text and accessible full text.

This qualitative study includes 18 open-ended telephone interviews with blind academic library users in the USA. The study uses the viewpoint that understanding blind peoples’ perspectives is essential for equal accessibility.

Locating full text via link resolvers seemed problematic. Inaccessible articles and complications and delays creating accessible versions of print books limited participants’ use of materials. Enabling technologies and services were highlighted.

Caution should be used when generalizing from this study due to its sample size and methodology. The study is not a web accessibility test, which would analyze coding, nor a usability test, which would observe users. Additional research would be ideal; however, libraries should not wait to attend to accessibility.

In addition to improving digital accessibility, to address difficulty obtaining full text, libraries could offer to locate full text for blind users and implement SmartLinking and single sign on authentication. To deal with inaccessible full text, libraries could work with disability offices to obtain accessible materials and to convert materials to accessible format. DRM free HTML or EPUB e-books can have accessibility advantages. Outsourcing conversion to accessible format can also help. Libraries could offer reader service to assist blind users locating relevant sections of books to convert.

Compared to previous studies, this study includes a larger number of blind screen reader users; describes some unique issues; and includes blind users’ own interpretations.

The current predominant delivery format resulting from digitization is PDF, which is not appropriate for the blind, partially sighted and people who read on mobile devices. To meet the needs of both communities, as well as broader ones, alternative file formats are required. With the findings of the eBooks-On-Demand-Network Opening Publications for European Netizens project research, this study aims to improve access to digitized content for these communities.

In 2022, the authors conducted research on the digitization experiences of 13 EODOPEN partners at their organizations. The authors distributed the same sample of scans in English with different characteristics, and in accordance with Web content accessibility guidelines, the authors created 24 criteria to analyze their digitization workflows, output formats and optical character recognition (OCR) quality.

In this contribution, the authors present the results of a trial implementation among EODOPEN partners regarding their digitization workflows, used delivery file formats and the resulting quality of OCR results, depending on the type of digitization output file format. It was shown that partners using the OCR tool ABBYY FineReader Professional and producing scanning outputs in tagged PDF and PDF/UA formats achieved better results according to set criteria.

The trial implementations were limited to 13 project partners’ organizations only.

This research paper can be a valuable contribution to the field of massive digitization practices, particularly in terms of improving the accessibility of the output delivery file formats.

With the rise of alternate discovery services, such as Google Scholar, in conjunction with the increase in open access content, researchers have the option to bypass academic libraries when they search for and retrieve scholarly information. This state of affairs implies that academic libraries exist in competition with these alternate services and with the patrons who use them, and as a result, may be disintermediated from the scholarly information seeking and retrieval process. Drawing from decision and game theory, bounded rationality, information seeking theory, citation theory, and social computing theory, this study investigates how academic librarians are responding as competitors to changing scholarly information seeking and collecting practices. Bibliographic data was collected in 2010 from a systematic random sample of references on CiteULike.org and analyzed with three years of bibliometric data collected from Google Scholar. Findings suggest that although scholars may choose to bypass libraries when they seek scholarly information, academic libraries continue to provide a majority of scholarly documentation needs through open access and institutional repositories. Overall, the results indicate that academic librarians are playing the scholarly communication game competitively.

Researchers and teachers have noted the power of students reading text sets or multiple texts on the same topic, and numerous articles have been published with examples of and frameworks for text set construction. This study aims to traces the theoretical assumptions of these frameworks and explores their distinct implications and tensions for understanding disciplinary literacy in English language arts (ELA).

The author draws on three frameworks, using a focal article for each: cognitive (Lupo et al., 2018), critical (Lechtenberg, 2018) and disciplinary (Levine et al., 2018), and connect those articles to other research studies in that tradition. Separately, the author describes each of the three text set frameworks’ design principles. Then, across frameworks, the author analyze the disciplinary assumptions around each framework’s centering texts, epistemological goals and trajectories.

The centering text, goals and trajectories of each framework reflect its underlying epistemological lens. All frameworks include a text that serves as its epistemological center and the cognitive and disciplinary frameworks, both rely on progressions of complexity (knowledge/linguistic and literary, respectively). The author traces additional alignments and tensions between the frameworks and offer suggestions for possible hybridities in reading modality and reading volume.

Many articles have been written about models of text set construction, but few have compared the assumptions behind those models. Examining these assumptions may help English teachers and curriculum designers select texts and build curriculum that leverages the strengths of each model and informs researchers’ understanding of disciplinary literacy in ELA.

Students with learning disabilities are ever-present in schools today and so is the technology to support these students. Assistive technology supports students with learning disabilities (LD) in terms of access and success in general education and special education settings. This chapter will discuss the challenges students with learning disabilities may face in school and the assistive technology educators can use to help address these challenges. Specifically, this chapter pays particular attention to assistive technology to support core content areas (e.g., literacy and mathematics) as well as organization and self-management.

The study aims to understand the information services provided to visually impaired users in Indian universities. Further, the study identifies the nuances of information system for visually impaired (ISVI) development suitable to the requirements of the visually impaired community in Indian higher educational institutions.

A two-fold methodology was followed in the study: (1) empirical survey and (2) information system design and development. The empirical survey was conducted in Indian higher educational institutions wherein 316 responses were collected including 185 (58.5%) undergraduate and 131 (41.5%) postgraduate students. A stratified random sampling technique was used in data collection. Empirical study findings were further used as a basis for ISVI design and development for addressing the information requirements of visually impaired users.

The study found that 232 respondents (73.2%) access the Internet every day. “Surprisingly, 143 respondents (45.3%) revealed that no digital infrastructure is available in their institutions, while 173 respondents (54.7%) stated digital infrastructure is available. A total of 210 respondents (75.9%) highlighted that the interface of open access (OA) resources is not designed as per visually impaired (VI) students' requirements. information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure is not up to the mark revealed as by 34 respondents (10.7 percent) and was rated ‘poor.’” A total of 268 respondents (90.2%) expressed that their institution should develop the information system to full their information needs.

The study is conducted in only one state in India due to financial hindrances. Visually impaired students studying in other states of India are not covered in the study, which may have different perception about the design and development of information system for the visually impaired.

An online ISVI is designed and developed under the study, which is accessible at http://www.isvi.in. Furthermore, the findings of the study may also be used by administrators of the higher educational institutions for building ICT infrastructure for visually impaired students.

No study has been conducted in Indian higher educational institutions for understanding the availability and preferences of information services to visually impaired tertiary students.

This study aims to comprehend the perceptions of visually impaired users in development of information systems in Indian universities. This will help higher educational institutions in India to fulfil information requirements of visually impaired users.

A twofold method was used in the study: survey of visually impaired students in four universities; design and development of an online information system for visually impaired (ISVI). A structured questionnaire was used for survey of visually impaired users in Indian universities. The questionnaire with 33 open-ended questions was distributed among 603 visually impaired users and 316 responses were received. Stratified sampling technique was used in data collection. Response rate was 52.4%. The received responses were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 19 and presented through tables and figures.

Majority of respondents revealed that lack of content availability in vernacular language, poor information resources access mechanism, less volume of course content and poor maintenance of assistive software(s) and devices and non-standardized e-resources compatible with the assistive software(s) are some major inhibits faced. Majority of respondents revealed that they prefer scribes in examinations because use of assistive technology (AT) is time-consuming. Lack of training and confidence in using AT is another reason for preferring scribes in examinations.

This study was conducted on a limited number of visually impaired uses in Indian universities. Also, the online system ISVI contains a sample collection related to undergraduate courses only.

This study will help Indian universities to identify problems faced by visually impaired users. Findings of the study can help faculty members, decision-makers to understand the perspective of visually impaired. Besides this, the study can also help government agencies in formulating policies. Findings will help in developing robust information resources suiting the needs of visually impaired.

This study developed an online system ISVI (www.isvi.in) suitable to address the requirements of visually impaired students. Furthermore, it can guide policymakers, faculty members and information professionals in developing seamless open access information systems.