Digital Inclusion

I have just attended an enlightening seminar on Digital Inclusion for Disabled People (aimed at Museums, Libraries and Archives).

The presentations were varied and interesting, and shook up my simplistic view of 'disability' as visual or hearing impairment, and mobility difficulties, as the presenters broadened the scope to include cognitive problems, learning difficulties, etc.

Having clarified the range of issues under consideration, it became clear that design changes to websites, and other digital media, could benefit not only people with specific disabilities, but us all to some extent or another. Technophobes, and late-uptakers have problems navigating sites, too.

A presentation from Sally Booth included reference to her own website, which she undertook as an 'art project' - being a visually-impaired artist herself, and not a technical geek - and it was excellent to see an example of an experiment in progress, in what is possible, to achieve clarity, simplicity and attractiveness in a website, while remaining compliant with W3C, etc.

She also recommended the websites of Anthony Gormley, and Anish Kapoor.

Christopher Power (University of York) delivered two punchy presentations, and Marcus Weisen enthused and excited us when describing the Jodi Awards (see link below).

I am not attempting to do justice to the day, but would like to add a few links for further investigation (notes to self, and anyone who is interested).

Jodi Awards

Welsh Assembly Government on Access, Equality and Diversity

MLA on Libraries and Disability

Books and media tie-ins

As publishing inevitably involves crossovers these days (the film of the book of the tv series) I find this site (with newsletter) very interesting, and probably useful to library staff - as users often enquire about items precisely because of these crossovers (the same material may appear on our catalogues as book, comic, talking book, large print, DVD, etc)

People are also interested in authors (aside from their work) and interviews and so on...

A great online resource! Books & Media

For a specific example of the depth of the resource, look at their listings for this week's radio shows which include items of interest to book lovers (although note that after a free trial, someone would have to pay for a subscription to access the complete resources).