[Athen] “Ensuring that the ‘World’s Knowledge is Accessible By All’: Canadian Blind Scholars Share their Experiences of Journal and other Digital Content”

[Adina Mulliken]

I’m just forwarding this, not involved with organizing it.  It isn’t free but the cost is a lot lower than a lot of conferences and allows a whole group to watch for the low price.

Adina Mulliken
Associate Professor, Librarian Silberman Social Work and Urban Public Health Library
Hunter College, City University of New York
2180 3rd Ave. New York, NY
Phone 212-396-7665
Pronouns she/her

From: <igcapalwcag-bounces at listserve.wlu.ca<mailto:igcapalwcag-bounces at listserve.wlu.ca>> on behalf of Mark Weiler <mweiler at wlu.ca<mailto:mweiler at wlu.ca>>
Date: Tuesday, September 20, 2022 at 7:42 AM
To: igcapalwcag <igcapalwcag at listserve.wlu.ca<mailto:igcapalwcag at listserve.wlu.ca>>
Subject: CPL WCAG-IG Reporting a barrier: Example


On October 3rd at 3:30pm at the Canadian Research Knowledge Network conference,  blind Canadians – from recent undergrad, to graduate students, to post-docs, to faculty – will be on a panel  speaking on:

“Ensuring that the ‘World’s Knowledge is Accessible By All’: Canadian Blind Scholars Share their Experiences of Journal and other Digital Content<https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.crkn-rcdr.ca%2Fen%2Fconference%2F2022-crkn-conference-strength-community%2Fprogram%2Fensuring-worlds-knowledge-accessible-all&data=05%7C01%7Cmweiler%40wlu.ca%7C1eb5c076e301430da6d608da9cb63a2a%7Cb45a5125b29846bc8b89ea5a7343fde8%7C1%7C0%7C637994603719928517%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2FwYAR5cfUALlRpQhveys9wVLtS2bD13k99otQLcmQXc%3D&reserved=0>”

The Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) and its members are critical partners in the work of ensuring access to the world’s knowledge for a diversity of students and faculty with print disabilities. The 2016 CRKN model license was a step in the right direction. However, unless principles of accessibility are intentionally centred at all stages of CRKN’s activities - from procurement of academic journal subscriptions and eBooks, to negotiation with vendors, and the digitization of existing and often historic print resources - CRKN members may actually create and sustain accessibility barriers for disabled readers. In this round table presentation, blind scholars from diverse academic fields of study at Canadian universities and at various stages of our academic careers will highlight why strong and reciprocal community collaboration and deliberate relationship building are essential for CRKN to ensure its activities support digital accessibility. The panel will demonstrate how blind scholars access journal articles and eBooks with screen readers and braille displays. We will describe the everyday access barriers we face when we try to engage with the journal articles and other digital materials we require to complete and teach courses and undertake a diversity of research projects. We will also describe the significant personal impacts of encountering inaccessible library materials. Finally, we will offer our perspectives on practical solutions that are grounded in an assertion that accessibility is necessarily facilitated by a collective commitment across CRKN members and a collaborative relationship that centres diverse disabled expertise in all aspects of this work.



Mark Weiler, PhD (he & him)
JAWS certified and Web Accessibility Specialist
Web & User Experience Librarian
Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo, Ontario


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