One of the largest digital libraries is Google Books. Google books representatives describe the site as a means to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” (Jones, 2019, p. 252). To some degree, this is certainly true: the site provides full text copies of public domain works, previews of in-copyright books, as well as reviews, related books, other access through stores and libraries, and searching features. However, going into my investigation, I had doubts as to how Google books would be able to specifically benefit people with visual difficulties or blindness.
Google Books Item Overview
Before talking about the current state of Google Books and inclusion, it helps to look back to see how digital libraries have developed and taken cues from public libraries throughout history.
In her 2017 article, information researcher Elisabeth Jones draws parallels between the Public Library movement beginning in the 19th Century and the Digital Library Movement that began in the nineties and continues today. Both movements express the value of increased access to information and the ability of people to inform themselves to aim for self-betterment. While these goals are admirable, both movements had major limitations due to exclusionary practices. Early public libraries were largely supported by wealthy philanthropists, like Andrew Carnegie, aimed toward serving the working, middle class. This group was largely perceived as socio-economically homogenous by public library advocates. In their minds, library users they considered “other” would be guided by the library toward adopting similar views and habits in addition to economic growth.
In her 2017 article, information researcher Elisabeth Jones draws parallels between the Public Library movement beginning in the 19th Century and the Digital Library Movement that began in the nineties and continues today. Both movements express the value of increased access to information and the ability of people to inform themselves to aim for self-betterment. While these goals are admirable, both movements had major limitations due to exclusionary practices. Early public libraries were largely supported by wealthy philanthropists, like Andrew Carnegie, aimed toward serving the working, middle class. This group was largely perceived as socio-economically homogenous by public library advocates. In their minds, library users they considered “other” would be guided by the library toward adopting similar views and habits in addition to economic growth.
Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (Photograph from Encyclopaedia Britannica)
Unfortunately, the Digital Library Movement began in a similar fashion, serving narrow groups of people as opposed to society as a whole. Originally, the movement was driven by computer scientists. As such, more effort was placed into the technical system creation aspects as opposed to providing mainstream access. As universities became more involved in the movement, they brought with them an increased focus on increasing access to information, like public libraries idealized. However, the movement was still being run by a group of academics and not the general public.
The kind of mindsets that had driven the early Public Library and Digital Library Movements is very likely to exclude people who are not highly represented in their communities. I would suspect that this includes people with disabilities. With this in mind, I started researching Google Books to see if this kind of exclusion would still be reflected in the most current and mainstream digital library platform.
According to the Association of Specialized, Government and Cooperative Library Agencies, a division of the American Library Association, there are a few common ways to increase accessibility for patrons with disabilities. One example is a way to magnify the text, which can be useful for users with visual difficulties or learning difficulties. Fortunately, Google Books has the feature to zoom in and out.
Zoom tools help make displayed text more accessible
However, for users with more severe difficulties or blindness, this feature will not provide full access. Reading through ALA recommendations, I learned that screen readers were another major way of making print accessible on computers. According to information from the National Federation of the Blind, Google actually implemented support for screen readers as far back as 2007. While the functionality is largely hidden to users without assistive technology installed in their computer, the site reveals a link to a compatible text-based eBook when it detects certain software.
As of 2007, there was still a major shortcoming in the ability of blind users to access downloadable off-line copies of books. Since Google Books downloads many documents as PDF images, many of them are not compatible with screen readers relying on text recognition. However, Google Books pages have been linked to downloadable eBook versions in recent years. These downloads can be read using accessibility features on devices like Kindles and Apple products. This does not provide an ideal situation for offline reading since other devices and transactions through unaffiliated websites are required. It does, at least, provide a work-around for those fortunate enough to have those devices.
I came away from this investigation surprised. Though by no means is its service perfect, Google has taken concrete steps over the years to increase access, including requesting input from users with disabilities through accessibility forums. This digital library seem to be following in similar footsteps as Public Libraries in expanding access through assistive technology. While both public and digital libraries may have begun with somewhat exclusionary practices, there seems to be hope for the future as long as advocacy efforts continue and people with disabilities are included in technology development.
As of 2007, there was still a major shortcoming in the ability of blind users to access downloadable off-line copies of books. Since Google Books downloads many documents as PDF images, many of them are not compatible with screen readers relying on text recognition. However, Google Books pages have been linked to downloadable eBook versions in recent years. These downloads can be read using accessibility features on devices like Kindles and Apple products. This does not provide an ideal situation for offline reading since other devices and transactions through unaffiliated websites are required. It does, at least, provide a work-around for those fortunate enough to have those devices.
I came away from this investigation surprised. Though by no means is its service perfect, Google has taken concrete steps over the years to increase access, including requesting input from users with disabilities through accessibility forums. This digital library seem to be following in similar footsteps as Public Libraries in expanding access through assistive technology. While both public and digital libraries may have begun with somewhat exclusionary practices, there seems to be hope for the future as long as advocacy efforts continue and people with disabilities are included in technology development.
References
"Assistive Technology: What You Need to Know Library", American Library Association, September 21, 2015.
http://www.ala.org/asgcla/resources/tipsheets/assistive-technologies (Accessed April 17, 2020) Document ID: 9ab48572-8954-
1964-ed5a-8875365fdf4a
Carnegie, Andrew [Image]. Retrieved April 17, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andrew-
Carnegie#/media/1/96298/96740.
Connect With an Accessible Community. (n.d.) Retrieved April 17, 2020, from
https://support.google.com/accessibility/answer/9248846?hl=en
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica (2020). Andrew Carnegie. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Retrieved April 17, 2020, from
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andrew-Carnegie
https://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm07/bm0710/bm071003.htm
Jones, E. (2017). The Public Library Movement, the Digital Library Movement, and the Large-Scale Digitization Initiative:
Assumptions, Intentions, and the Role of the Public. Information & Culture: A Journal of History 52(2), 229-263.
doi:10.1353/lac.2017.0009.
Hey William! I was reading your post and felt the same way when I started digging into Goggle and the effort they are putting into making information accessible for users. It was great to see that they are getting real feedback from users that have accessibility issues. I also thought that it was awesome that they had resources available to help others make webpages or apps more accessible.
ReplyDelete