Spina | Access for Whom? An Examination of Public-Facing Accessibility Practices in Library Accessibility Alliance Members’ Open Access Institutional Repositories | Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication

Abstract:  Introduction: Open access aims to provide access to research and scholarship without barriers. An important tool in this process has been institutional repositories (IRs), which disseminate and preserve open scholarship. The goal of this research project was to examine the extent to which IRs in the U.S. are incorporating publicfacing accessibility practices to make their open access works accessible to users of all abilities.

Method: This environmental scan reviews the IRs of Library Accessibility Alliance member institutions to identify the prevalence of accessibility practices across those IRs, including contact information, accessibility statements, instructions for submitters, and accessibility-related metadata.

Results: This environmental scan found that all but two institutions offered contact information, an avenue for requesting remediation and asking questions. Just over half of the institutions offered IR accessibility documentation, and many linked to other institutional accessibility documentation. Additionally, slightly under a quarter of the institutions provided support for researchers hoping to make their submissions accessible, and three included accessibility information in item-level metadata.

Conclusion: While many IR teams are taking some steps to ensure that their IRs are accessible, many accessibility features are not standard across the IRs examined in this study, which suggests the potential for future improvement. Expanded adoption of accessibility best practices would improve access to IR materials and help achieve the ultimate goals of the open access movement.