Access For All: Do Archives Provide ‘True’ Access To All

Communities With Digital Preservation/Access?

Lisa SniderElectronic Records Archivist

Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas Austin (as of Sept. 1st)@archivesmatter

ACA Conference – Winnipeg

June 15th, 2013

Do archives provide ‘true’ access to all communities with digital preservation/access?

True Access: Everyone can view online digital material, or digital material held in archival storage.

All Communities:Everyone, including people with disabilities. My focus today will be on people with disabilities.

Definitions

My Focus: This talk will focus on digital materials (born digital and digitized) and long term digital preservation. I will also mention digital access...

My Goal: Today I want to start a conversation on long term digital preservation and accessibility, and give two suggestions for where to start.

This Talk: My Focus & Goal

Yes and No

Are Archivists Considering All User Communities With Digital Preservation and Access?

Digital Access:Online exhibits and websites that have digital archival material in them, etc.

Visualization tools and sites such as LOC’s Viewshare.

First...Digital Access

Yes, sort of... In the last four years I have been working on this

as an archivist, and I have seen a difference. Overall, there is more awareness and action by

archivists (except visualization tools/sites).

Are We Making Digital Materials Accessible With Digital Access?

I see more questions/discussions on the SAA listserv from US archives.

The Internet Archive is now making ArchiveIt.org 508 accessible by the end of June, improving it for users who are using screen readers or keyboard navigation (email correspondence with Kristine Hanna, Director Internet Archive).

[ArchiveIt.org-where archivists archive websites/social media sites using the Archive-It service.]

Digital Access and Accessibility-US

Canadian achivists are interested and talking more about it.

I find in Ontario, there is more awareness due to the accessibility legislation there (AODA).

Digital Access and Accessibility-Canada

Long term digital preservation Processing digital materials (born digitial and

digitized), migrating and converting them into proper formats for preservation/access copies and then storing them on a server/hard drive.

Second...Digital Preservation

No (or Maybe?) It does not seem to be on our radar yet. Today I

want to change that... I have searched far and wide, and to date I have

not found anyone who is working on it and talking about it-but that doesn’t mean that this work doesn’t exist!

Are We Making Digital Materials Accessible With Digital Preservation?

It isn’t because we are mean, uncaring people! We care about our collections and users. As a digital archivist, here is what I think...

Why Haven’t We Worked on This Issue?

Digital access has been around since the early 90s, we have had many years to work with it. Plus we have had accessibiliy guidelines since 1999 for websites and the digital materials on them (WCAG, etc.).

Preservation is relatively new to most archivists. Many have been doing it for years, but most have only been

doing it for a short time. We are grappling with many issues that relate to

preservation: How do we preserve different materials? What tools do we use to preserve them? Which formats do we use for conversion and migration? Grey hair guaranteed!!!

Let’s think about one more issue...

Maybe an Answer to Why Not?

When we convert and/or migrate to different formats (making preservation/access copies from originals/copies), are we making the materials less accessible?

Example: I make sure my Word document is accessible. I make a preservation copy (ODF) and an access copy (PDF-A) of it.

Did the change in format change the accessibility? Did the tool I used to change the format change the

accessibility? We need to do testing to confirm.

Accessibility Issues to Ponder (1)

We use PDF-A format a lot for access/preservation copies. Should we be looking at the new PDF-UA1 format instead? It was

designed to provide Universal Accessibility.

It has issues and is new, but the LOC says: "Since an unencrypted PDF document compliant with PDF/UA may

also comply with requirements for PDF/A, files that conform to PDF/UA in addition to PDF/A are considered a preferred format for page-oriented content by the Library of Congress..“

Accordingly, tools that generate PDF/UA conforming files in addition to PDF/A are meeting the highest standards for archival electronic content. Such files offer the greatest potential for high-quality repurposing. (http://www.commonlook.com/the-library-of-congress-prefers-pdfua)

Accessibility Issues to Ponder (2)

Should we create guidelines for digital preservation and accessibility?

Accessibility Issues to Ponder (3)

Reach out to organizations that work with people with disabilities.

Look at all organizations/communities. Ask them for feedback. Ask them to test things. People want to help, they want to make a

difference. I found this in my Canadian Archival Websites and Accessibility/Usability research study.

How Can We Improve True Access for All Communities? (1)

Start a conversation.

Start thinking about this issue. Start small and end big (thanks big burly UFC

fighters!) Tweet about it! ACA has 3 sessions on accessibility (yea ACA!) Do

a conference session next year! <shameless plug>Join the new (hopefully!) ACA

Accessibility Special Interest Section and help change things, and talk about it! </shameless plug>

How Can We Improve True Access for All Communities? (2)

Thank you for listening, and start the conversation in your archives!

Lisa SniderElectronic Records Archivist Harry Ransom CenterUniversity of Texas Austin (as of Sept. 1st)

@archivesmatter info@lisasnider.ca

Thank You