Library ADA Guide – Created April 2014

NCU Library Resources /
A Guide for ADA Accessibility /

Table of Contents

Introduction

Library Website

Research Resources

Reference Services

Text-to-Speech

Adobe Acrobat Reader

Databases with Text-to-Speech

Credo Reference

Ebrary

EBSCOhost

Gale Academic OneFile

Free Audio Repositories

Screen Reading

Screen Readers & Magnifying Hardware and Software

Screen Readers and PDFs

Screen Readers and Library Databases

ACM Digital Library

Credo Reference

Ebrary

EBSCOhost Databases

LexisNexis Academic

ProQuest

SAGE Journals Online

ScienceDirect

SpringerLink

Web of Knowledge

Wiley Online Library

WorldCat

Closed Captioning

Quick Tutorial Videos

Library Workshop Videos

Library Video Databases

Open Access Video Databases

Microsoft Accessibility Tools

Apple Accessibility Tools

Internet Browsers

Internet Explorer (IE)

Google Chrome

Mozilla Firefox

Lynx

Opera

Safari

WebbIE

ADA Resources

NCU Library Resources: A Guide for ADA Accessibility

Introduction
The NCU Library is committed to providing equitable access to library resources and services for all users, in accordance with our overall Mission and Vision. The Library continues to develop offerings to meet current ADA standards. Arrangements for reasonable accommodations are coordinated with the Disability Services department. If services are needed beyond those listed, or if you have questions or suggestions, please contact the Compliance Manager - Disabilities Services Laura L. Barwidi at r by phone at 888-628-6911, ext. 8018

The purpose of this guide is to provide details about the variety of Library services available topersons with disabilities at Northcentral University. We hope that this guide enhances your ability to use our Library fully and independently.

Library Website

The NCU Library strives to make its website accessible in accordance with WCAG 2.0, ADA, Section 508, and other accessibility standards and guidelines. Students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to contact us with any issue concerning the Library website.

ResearchResources

The NCU Library subscribes to many electronic resources provided through a variety of commercial vendors and publishers, and, unfortunately, not all resources were designed for maximum accessibility.The Library provides students with proxy access tolicensed content which ishosted and delivered on the providers’ websites. Therefore, in some cases, the Libraryis unable to provide an alternative accessible copy or version of the resource if the resource itself was not properly encoded for accessibility from the start.As vendors continue to work toward compliance and usability, the functionality of their databases will improve. Students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to contact us with any issue concerning the electronic journals, books, and databases.

Reference Services

Reference librarians can assist with any questions you have about using the library or conducting library research. Assistance is via phone, live chat, Ask a Librarian, or email at . To avoid delays in service that occur during peak service periods, or to receive individual assistance with extensive research projects, studentswith disabilities are encouraged to schedule a research consultation with a reference librarian by calling the Library at 888-628-1569, or by completing the Research Consultation Request Form.

Note that due to the nature of the Comprehensive Exam (COMPS) course, students are prohibited from obtaining assistance from the Library, outside of requests for technical support.

Text-to-Speech
The library's databases present articles and abstracts in two different formats: PDF or HTML. HTML articles may be read by read aloud software very easily. PDFs can present some issues. PDF accessibility depends on how the articles were scanned. In some cases, security features (to prevent the document from being altered) may interfere with PDF accessibility.

Adobe Acrobat Reader

Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat both have a read aloud feature. This feature will allow pdfs that are ADA accessible to be read out loud for patrons.

NOTE: The absolute best way to make use of Adobe's accessibility features is to use Adobe in conjunction with your assistive technology screen reader software.

To turn the read aloud feature on in PCs:

  • open the pdf
  • go to the View option at the top of the screen and select Read Out Loud and then scroll down to the last option listed called, Activate Read Out Loud
  • click on the screen to begin reading

To turn the read aloud feature on in Macs:

  • open the pdf
  • go to the Edit option at the top of the screen and select Speech and then select the option, Start Speaking
  • reader will start automatically

To pause, select a specific section, or, read to the end of the document, select view, the read out loud option, and then the appropriate option (pause, etc.)

Databases with Text-to-Speech
The following list of Library databases provide text-to-speech capabilities. In other words, they allow users to listen to an audio version of an article or e-book. Note that the audio files in databases are "machine read" and therefore do not demonstrate the natural voice or inflection of a human narrator. The NCU Library and the Databases do not take responsibility for the accuracy, reliability or completeness of any audio file.

Credo Reference

Credo Reference allows you to listen to or download the MP3 of articles by clicking on "Listen" in the white toolbox above the article.

Ebrary

The ebrary Unity Reader supports text-to-speech and other accessibility options. Please see instructions for installing the Ebrary Unity Reader here. Once you have installed the Unity Reader, you will be able to click on the “Speech” tab just to the right of the TOC and Notes tabs.

For additional information on Ebrary accessibility options, please see

EBSCOhost

All of thedatabases (see list below) have a read aloud feature for HTML articles that may be manually activated. Note that this option is not available for every article, only those with HTML full text. To activate the read aloud feature, follow the steps below.

  • choose theHTML Full Textoption, theListenicon appears on the Tools list just under the title of the article
  • you may select three different accents and reading speeds
  • to pause the reading, click on the pause button

List of NCU EBSCO databases with the Read Aloud Feature:

  • Business Source Complete
  • Education Research Complete
  • MEDLINE with Full Text
  • Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in Print
  • PsycARTICLES
  • PsycBooks
  • PsycINFO
  • Regional Business News

For additional information about EBSCO text-to-speech see the instructional guide here:

Gale Academic OneFile

On the article's page, the "Listen" icon appears above the article title if audio is available. Click on "Listen" to begin play. Alternatively, you may click on "Download MP3" in the toolbox on the right to download an MP3 file of the audio of the article.

For additional information, see the Gale Listening to a Document/Downloading and MP3 instructions at

Free Audio Repositories

The following sites provide collections of free audio books.

  • AudioBookCloud.com - Audio books in many different categories: fiction, non-fiction, classics and even Spanish language audio books.
  • Books Should Be Free - Public-domain audio books including fiction, nonfiction, children's books, classics, and more.
  • Bookshare- provides downloadable text of over 90,000 books and magazines.
  • Learn OutLoud - Over 5,000 free educational audio and video titles, including podcasts.
  • Learning Ally (formerly Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic)provides human-narrated audio of textbooksfor all educational levels.
  • Legamus! -Recordings in English, Dutch, French, Italian, Polish.
  • LibriVox - Free audio books from the public domain read by volunteers.
  • LoudLit - Small collection of free audio books, short stories and poetry.
  • Metropolitan Washington Ear- Provides daily voice recordings of major newspapers and magazines,by phone or special radio.
  • Open Culture - Free audio books, podcasts and movies.
  • Project Gutenberg - The Audio Books Project- Audio e-books available in two different categories: human-read and computer-generated.
  • Talking History - Aural history including Radio Archive, and Labor History Archive (American)

Screen Reading

Screen Readers & Magnifying Hardware and Software

Links to screen readers may be found below.

  • Bierley Electronic Magnifiers
  • Book Wizard Reader
  • FSReader 2.0
  • JAWS
  • Magnisight
  • NaturalReader
  • NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access)
  • Open Book
  • Read & Write
  • ReadPlease 2003
  • SuperNova
  • System Access Standalone
  • Thunder
  • WebAnywhere
  • Window-Eyes
  • WYNN Reader
  • ZoomText Magnifier/Reader

Screen Readers and PDFs

Adobe Acrobat supports assistive software and devices, such as screen readers and screen magnifiers that enable visually impaired users to interact with computer applications. When assistive software and devices are in use, Acrobat adds temporary tags to open PDFs to improve their readability.

When using a screen reader, you can change your reading settings for the current document by choosing Tools > Accessibility > Change Reading Options.

For more information about using screen readers, see

Accessibility Setup Assistant improves how Acrobat interacts with the types of assistive software and devices that you use. See the documentation for your assistive software or device. Or, contact the vendor for more information about system requirements, compatibility requirements, and instructions for using this software or device with Acrobat.

Screen Readers and Library Databases

Most Library databases are designed to be useable with screen reader technology. However, database content was created by outside vendors, some of which were not designed with accessibility in mind. Further, each screen reader works and interacts with databases differently.Many databases provide additional instructions as to how one may maximize use of their databases in screen-reader mode. Those instructions are included below. For further information, please contact the Library.

ACM Digital Library

Instructions for screen reader users:

Before entering the database it is necessary to accept the terms and conditions. JAWS reads these automatically. Once heard you can press tab to highlight ‘I accept the above terms’ then enter. The default is to search The ACM Digital Library rather than The Guide, which is correct, but the search box on the homepage is labelled as The Guide Edit. If your links list your search results, the article title appears first, followed by the full text in PDF and sometimes HTML format.

View the HTML version if available as the PDF files are often without headings and therefore hard to navigate. Before you can download any full text item, you will need to disable your pop up blocker as full text opens in a new window. Use Adobe Reader to convert the PDF, although it still may not read in a linear way. Articles can also be converted to a more accessible format using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) equipment.

Credo Reference

Instructions for screen reader users:

Credo Referenceincorporates many features into its design for screen readers, such as the ability to skip over the navigation links when reading results, so that it is not repetitive.

More information can be found at:

It also is designed to allow keyboard navigation of the page. Here is a summary of the controls:

Access Key / Link
j / Skip to Content
s / Search
a / Advanced Search
b / Find a Book
c / Concept Map
r / Saved Results
g / Gadgets
h / Help
l / Logout
e / E-mail (on an entry display)
p / Print (on an entry display)

For more information on keyboard controls, visit:

Ebrary

For users with accessibility issues, ebrary supports Accessibility Mode. The Accessibility Mode page describes how to turn on Accessibility mode and how the operations change when you use Accessibility mode. This Help system describes the system with Accessibility turned off.

Enabling the Screen Reader for the Visually Impaired

The ebrary QuickView reader display does not include documents text that can be read by screen readers (such as JAWS). This is true even if you have selected accessibility mode.

To enable the screen reader access for QuickView

  1. Inform your librarian that you are visually impaired and that you want direct access to the text of ebrary documents with your screen reader. Your librarian will contact and request screen reader access for you.
  2. After ebrary support staff has modified your account, log in with your user name.

When you choose to display a document in QuickView, the document content becomes available to the screen reader and can be traversed with the screen reader commands you are accustomed to.

System Requirements

Before you begin, check your browser for the following:

  • JavaScript is enabled.
  • Cookies are enabled.
  • Pop-ups are allowed for *.ebrary.com.

If you use firewall or security software, you might need to modify your configuration to prevent the software from blocking ebrary.

For additional information on Ebrary accessibility options, please see

EBSCOhost Databases

Instructions for screen reader and keyboard only users:

Many pages have additional assistance tips for screen reader users in the Introductory Text at the top of each page. Please read this information and follow instructions for improved navigation.

Access the database, enter your search terms and pressEnterto conduct the search. The resulting references are listed so that theAdd to folderoption appears after the title of the article it relates to.

Full text is provided inHTMLorPDFor in some cases both formats. Use theHTMLversion when available. If only aPDFis provided and you are usingJAWS, use Adobe Reader 7.0 to convert the article, but it will not always read in a linear fashion. If full text is not available in EBSCOhost, you can clickthe ArticleLinker button to check for availabilityin another library database.Add the references you are interested in to a folder and opt to list them, then if you use links list inJAWS, the email, print and save to disk options are towards the bottom of the list. To carry out another search choose theAdvanced Search link.

EBSCOhost has been fully tested to allow users to navigate the web interface with only a keyboard. You may also be able to use the access keys listed below. There are problems navigating an individual record using Internet Explorer, making it difficult to return to your results. You are advised to use the links to full text etc. provided in the results list, or use Firefox instead.

Access Keys:
Depending on your operating systems you will need to press Ctrl or Alt and 1, 2, or 3. The numbers permit you to do the following:

  • Access key 1 – Skip Navigation to Result Lists
  • Access key 2 – Search
  • Access key 3 – Main Navigation toolbar

For more information on searching EBSCO databases with JAWS 8.0, visit:

You may also see the EBSCO FAQs about JAWS at:

LexisNexis Academic

Instructions for screen reader and keyboard only users:

This database iscomplexand usesframes. For keyboard users it is recommended that you use F6 and SHIFT+F6 to move between the frames. There area few drop-down boxes that refresh the screen as soon asyou use the arrow key to move to the next option when using Internet Explorer. To open the drop down box and then select the option you want, press ALT+ DOWN ARROW, selectyour preferred option using UP and DOWN ARROWand then press ENTER to activateit.The search results pages have five frames. Listed below are the headings of each frame with a brief explanation of what they cover:

  • Global Navigation Frameenables you to go back to the LexisLibrary start page
  • Results Navigation Frameallows you to manipulate your references by changing the sort order, email and save them etc.
  • Results Classification Frameseparates and groups the results under type of publication
  • Right Side Framecan be ignored
  • Results Content Framelists your results

ProQuest

Instructions for screen reader users:

If you are using Internet Explorer and want tospecify date ranges in Advanced Search use ALT + DOWN ARROW to open the Date Range combo box and use the up and down arrows to movethrough the options. Press enter to choose the appropriate date range, which may then open another boxfor you to enter the date details. If you don't access the combo box this way JAWS is confused when the additional date range boxes are automatically generated as you move through the options and stops reading. This does not happen with Firefox.Choose FullText, rather than Full Text - PDF, where available. Once you are in Full Text, select level heading 2, to move straight to the full text.