This is a guest post by Olivia Najdovski, student at University of Toronto iSchool.
One in five Canadians have a disability. As such, it is critical to consider the accessibility of websites to ensure that they are accessible to all. From October to December, I worked with OurDigitalWorld to conduct an accessibility audit of the VITA Digital Collections Toolkit base site code. The goal of this project was to achieve accessibility for sites as per the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG) guidelines. This process involved using WebAIM’s WAVE Browser Extension in addition to manual reviews to flag accessibility issues on the Toolkit sites, using both Safari and Chrome browsers.
More specifically, the manual review involved combing through each individual webpage to pinpoint issues relating to keyboard accessibility and screen-reader compatibility. Some accessibility functionality is built in to the toolkit, like creating alt text for images from their titles, but this review process revealed some key discoveries that, with the web development talents of the ODW team, we were able to resolve.
One issue we resolved across the Toolkit sites was a lack of labelling on buttons. When buttons or links are not accurately labelled, screen readers cannot pick up on what the purpose of that button or link is. Therefore, screen reader users cannot make use of the button, because the screen reader cannot relay what the button does. To remedy this, we ensured that buttons and links were accurately labelled across the toolkit sites, significantly improving the accessibility of the sites for screen reader users.
Sample application of the WAVE add-on during testing of a VITA Toolkit site
The great news is that incorporating small changes like labelling buttons and including additional informative alt text for images improved the accessibility and inclusivity of the Toolkit websites. Accessibility is an ongoing process, however, and can be compromised with any client-based content or site changes over time. This is a good step forward in keeping with ODW’s mandate of providing full and inclusive public access to community digital collections.
VITA Digital Collections Toolkit was upgraded in September 2022, making it easier for user to provide better attribution and search results. This version upgrade means users can automatically assign copyright labels, process text items with OCR and hit highlighting, and share improved display for linked index records and more…
Exciting new changes include:
digital files uploaded as category “page” can automatically generate OCR and apply hit highlighting to search results – great for newspaper issues, documents, even headstone photos!
copyright holder statements can be automatically applied to serial publications 95 years old or younger (here’s how)
index records with links to digital pages will now display the linked page image in the details panel instead of the sidebar
personal information and cookies policy statements are now available for both VITA users and the public
apply “section” fields for non-newspaper pages e.g. Chapter headings
updated “help” for on-screen support (and correlating MAP updates)
Want to stay up to date with VITA Toolkit news? Use the subscription form on the home page of the VITA Help site.
In April 2022, the VITA Digital Collections Toolkit was upgraded to version 6.3. This release includes a balance of public engagement features and back-end management options. Inspired by feedback from the user community on both sides of the collections, VITA 6.3 focuses on: increasing linked discovery (like indexing non-Newspaper volumes); better search options (like search within Publication and on/off filters for results sets); expanding and scoping VITA collection audiences (with OAI-PMH integrations and IP restricted sites, respectively); and some fun stuff like interactive jigsaw puzzles and enhanced pan-zoom viewing. We hope you will explore the collections to see some of the changes!
Improved & Engaging Public Site options
Contribute Audio/Video/Document files to eligible accounts
Search within a Publication (e.g. Home & Country Newsletters) allows your results to stay focused on a single volume or newspaper publication
Jigsaw puzzles for a different way to interact with historical images
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