Assessing the Accessibility of Library Tools & Services When You Aren’t an Accessibility Expert: Part 2

Abstract

There are a few studies in library literature that explore accessibility issues from the perspective of students who use assistive technologies for accessibility. As we shared in part one of this two-part series in our column, librarians have extensively explored through usability studies with WAVE and other audit tools how accessible library websites and databases are when using assistive technologies like JAWS. In this column, we asked our blind student worker to journal his experiences navigating our library’s databases. We found this student navigated the databases better than we anticipated. While his experiences regarding the accessibility of the libraries’ electronic services varied, common issues he experienced included navigational issues from menus with expanding capabilities, documents that were not scanned with OCR, and images without alternative text.     

Public deliberation and social justice sensibilities in Greensboro Participatory Budgeting

ABSTRACT

Participatory budgeting (PB) has emerged as a tool for empowering marginalized communities and advancing social justice through public deliberation and advocacy. However, public deliberation scholars have contested the appropriate roles of social justice, activism, and equity. PB bridges deliberation, advocacy, and equity, as it strives to accomplish social change. We detail how the first cycle of Greensboro PB navigated tensions between residents who sought social change and government officials who wished to maintain the status quo. We argue PB is an example of public deliberation that fosters social justice sensibilities among participants and conclude with applied recommendations for design improvements.     

‘Do you need a kayak to learn outside?’: a literature review into learning outside the classroom

This paper presents a review of research focusing on ‘Learning Outside the Classroom’ (LOtC). We provide a distillation of international research in this field that identifies how future investigations could be focused and move the discipline forward. As a consequence of the breadth of our study, we feel our findings will have applications in educational settings across the globe. What we discover is a significant bias towards types of learning that largely cannot be measured, and that only a minority of published research in our review pays the level of attention to theoretical and philosophical foundations found in most other educational research.     

Evaluating interactive video: Software and hardware

Summary The evaluation and selection of interactive video hardware is a difficult process even for experts. There seems to be a multitude of models, options, peripherals, and prices. The task becomes even more perplexing because of rapid advances in the technology. What is new today may be obsolete tomorrow. Using the checklist should help make your job easier. It allows you to compare computers “apple for apple.” The recommendations listed are general suggestions. Different organizations may require most or less than what is recommended. Always plan for at least the minimum requirements of your software, even if those requirements are above our recommendations.     

Students' perceptions of their information literacy skills: the confidence gap between male and female international graduate students

In the 2015 Summer Session I, the information literacy team combined two instruments, the Information Literacy Assessment (ILA) and the Students' Perceptions of Their Information Literacy Skills Questionnaire (SPIL-Q), into one survey and distributed it to the college's international graduate students through a Google Form. It was distributed to 932 international graduate students, and 172 valid respondents completed the survey. The purpose of this research was to compare the confidence gap in information literacy skills between men and women, particularly in international graduate students. Data collected illustrated that female international business students (n = 70) tended to be slightly more confident than their male counterparts (n = 102) regarding their perceived information literacy skills as evidenced by their SPIL-Q average score across all six IL topics, 3.78, vs. male student's average score of 3.58.     

A study of the relationship among type and quality of implementation of science teaching strategy,student formal reasoning ability,and student engagement

The objective of this study was to identify the relationship between the type and quality of science teaching strategy and student engagement. Teachers and their students in middle and high schools were observed on ten occasions. A total of 60 observations were made of all teachers and ten of each of their students. During each observation period, the type and quality of implementation of teaching strategy was identified and student engagement was rated. Data collected were examined by regression analyses. The results indicated that the type and quality of implementation of teaching strategies did significantly and positively relate to student engagement. Analyzed individually, the type of teaching strategy predicted 12 per cent of the variance in engagement, while the quality of teaching strategy predicted 35 per cent. Overall, the type and quality of teaching strategy predicted 37 per cent of the variance in engagement. The data also showed that the more indirect the teaching strategy, the greater the students' involvement in learning tasks.