Online Services for People with Disabilities in Australian Public Libraries (September 1998 - September 2000)

• Chief Investigators: Dr Kirsty Williamson and Larry Stillman

• Funder: AccessAbility Program (Networking the Nation, Commonwealth Department of Communication, Information Technology and the Arts): $120,004, plus $180,000 in-kind commitment from State Library of Victoria/VICNET.

• Research Collaborator: VICNET, State Library of Victoria, Australia.

Key Ojectives

• To select core sets of adaptive equipment, suited to people with a range of different disabilities for use in public settings.

• To develop related training packages.

• To develop standards and policies to achieve appropriate levels of online public access for disability groups.

The aim was to include the full range of disabilities in the project: sight, motor, intellectual and hearing, and any combination of these.

Methods

Trials were conducted in nine public libraries throughout Victoria, together with the Wagga Wagga City Library in NSW. Over the two-year period of the project, 102 participants were involved. The research for first phase of the project (concerned with adaptive equipment) included 50 people with a range of disabilities. Sessions with each participant began with an interview, which sought to establish the level of ownership and use of a range of equipment, e.g., computers, telephone, answering machines; knowledge of online services; information-seeking and communication behaviour; likely topics of interest for Web searches; and demographic characteristics. Each participant was then tested on the standard equipment, before being introduced to, and tested on, at least one piece of adaptive equipment. The session concluded with further interview questions that focused particularly on participants' reactions to their experiences on the Internet - both with the standard and adaptive equipment, and the recording of the interviewers' observations on the participant's disability and degree of comfort with the Internet.

The second stage concentrated on the training aspect of selected adaptive equipment and involved focus groups of librarians and trials of training approaches with people with disabilities. Seventeen librarians from both a metropolitan and a rural library were included in the focus groups to discuss the trial of Opera. Prior to the focus groups librarians gave feedback online to the usability and user requirements of the browser.

Current Status The project has been completed. Check Publications for reports and articles written about the project. A summary report has been produced.

A review of the literature in relation to this project can be viewed http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/research/groups/itnr/current/disabilities.html