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Thread: University Resources
Number of posts in this thread: 4 (In chronological order)
From: Brian Lovely
Date: Thu, Apr 17 2025 9:53AM
Subject: University Resources
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I'm a little out of my zone here, so I hope I can word this question correctly. If a university provides access to outside resources, for example JSTOR or PubMed, is the university responsible for the accessibility of those resources?
Thank you,
Brian Lovely
From: Brandon Keith Biggs
Date: Thu, Apr 17 2025 11:02AM
Subject: Re: University Resources
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Hello,
U.S. universities will often offer to properly tag or convert papers to
Word that a student requests. There's a 2-week turn-around, and sometimes
math content, for example, is not done correctly, but it's very nice to
have the university who will be willing to make a complex file usable on
request.
For less complex PDFs, I recommend:
https://papertohtml.org/
Thanks,
Brandon Keith Biggs <http://brandonkeithbiggs.com/>;
On Thu, Apr 17, 2025 at 9:24 AM Julian Tenney via WebAIM-Forum <
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> I would say no, but it probably depends. If it's just general access to a
> third party resource, then the accessibility is not the University's
> responsibility. However that doesn't mean that the University shouldn't
> review the accessibility of that resource and i) highlight any issues to
> users, or ii) raise those issues with the third party.
>
> It might be more complicated if access to the resource is an essential
> part of a users job. The problem here is define 'essential'.
>
> The EAA is relevant here, with the onus falling on the third party. It's
> also more complicated because something like pubmed will contain resources
> in turn provided by multiple third parties, who may have varying standards
> / policies when it comes to accessibility.
>
> So in my opinion it's a good question because of the 'what ifs' but in my
> work at University of Nottingham I do not think we are responsible for
> pubmed's accessibility.
>
> Julian
>
> > From: WebAIM-Forum < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > on behalf of
> Brian Lovely via WebAIM-Forum < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> Sent: 17 April 2025 16:53
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> Cc: Brian Lovely < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> Subject: [WebAIM] University Resources
>
> I'm a little out of my zone here, so I hope I can word this question
> correctly. If a university provides access to outside resources, for
> example JSTOR or PubMed, is the university responsible for the
> accessibility of those resources?
>
> Thank you,
> Brian Lovely
>
> This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and
> may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in
> error, please contact the sender and delete the email and attachment. Any
> views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily
> reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. Email communications
> with the University of Nottingham may be monitored where permitted by law.
>
>
From: Joshua Hori
Date: Thu, Apr 17 2025 2:03PM
Subject: Re: University Resources
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UC Berkeley went through this back in 2013: https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-college-disabled-20130507-story.html
This is why we got the SensusAccess document converter. Back then, all the jstor documents were images, except the copyright page, which was fully accessible. The documents were usually clean and produced clean results. With SensusAccess, I have a web submission page, an email submission, and LMS LTI integration. We just updated our SensusAccess Inside so that it works next to all files within Canvas.
I’ve also been testing Palace App lately, which is improving their accessibility efforts…It’s a book finding app that allows users to read on their mobile devices which are being offered to libraries.
Best,
Joshua Hori
Accessible Technology Coordinator
Information Educational Technology
Academic Technology Services
50 Hutchison Dr.
Davis, CA 95616
530-752-2439
Schedule a meeting via Calendly<https://calendly.com/d/ytt-hsj-vbn>
From: WebAIM-Forum < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > on behalf of Xander Andrews via WebAIM-Forum < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Date: Thursday, April 17, 2025 at 12:36 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Cc: Xander Andrews < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] University Resources
Not a lawyer, or providing legal advice here in any way, but I would point out that a federal jury ruled in Payan v. LACCD that LA City College failed to meet its legal obligations to two blind students, and inaccessible library resources were listed as part of that failure. We may not be responsible for fixing the accessibility issues of a product, but we could be held responsible for using/licensing inaccessible products.
Many University Libraries have been pushing vendors to improve the accessibility of their products during contract renewal negotiations. The University of Washington Libraries tested all of our E-resources<https://lib.uw.edu/services/accessibility/e-resource-testing/#p> in 2022, to evaluate if they meet basic keyboard navigation. Higher level testing is being done by the Library Accessibility Alliance<https://www.libraryaccessibility.org/testing>.
[http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/uw-s3-cdn/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/21094817/Univ-of-Washington_Memorial-Way.jpg]<https://lib.uw.edu/services/accessibility/e-resource-testing/#p<http://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/uw-s3-cdn/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/21094817/Univ-of-Washington_Memorial-Way.jpg%5d%3chttps:/lib.uw.edu/services/accessibility/e-resource-testing/#p>;>
Library E-Resource Accessibility Testing – UW Libraries<https://lib.uw.edu/services/accessibility/e-resource-testing/#p>
UW Libraries' testing efforts to ensure E-resources procured for use at the Libraries are accessible to individuals with disabilities.
lib.uw.edu
Xander Andrews, MCRP
Disability Resources for Students
Assistant Director, Academic Services
011 Mary Gates Hall
Box 352808
Seattle, WA 98195-2808
206-616-9757
From: WebAIM-Forum < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > on behalf of Brandon Keith Biggs via WebAIM-Forum < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2025 10:02 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Cc: Brandon Keith Biggs < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] University Resources
Hello,
U.S. universities will often offer to properly tag or convert papers to
Word that a student requests. There's a 2-week turn-around, and sometimes
math content, for example, is not done correctly, but it's very nice to
have the university who will be willing to make a complex file usable on
request.
For less complex PDFs, I recommend:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://papertohtml.org/__;!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!k7vvAxRXZ6r4iheOvZeMO8OWLhM3TqYOXj902TK3-zrGuDmwNlXp427W_O9upWb1DvINcs8D21kImr0IG-5Nfp1guw$<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/papertohtml.org/__;!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!k7vvAxRXZ6r4iheOvZeMO8OWLhM3TqYOXj902TK3-zrGuDmwNlXp427W_O9upWb1DvINcs8D21kImr0IG-5Nfp1guw$>
Thanks,
Brandon Keith Biggs <https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://brandonkeithbiggs.com/__;!!K-Hz7m0Vt54!k7vvAxRXZ6r4iheOvZeMO8OWLhM3TqYOXj902TK3-zrGuDmwNlXp427W_O9upWb1DvINcs8D21kImr0IG-48r6CSlQ$ >
On Thu, Apr 17, 2025 at 9:24 AM Julian Tenney via WebAIM-Forum <
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> I would say no, but it probably depends. If it's just general access to a
> third party resource, then the accessibility is not the University's
> responsibility. However that doesn't mean that the University shouldn't
> review the accessibility of that resource and i) highlight any issues to
> users, or ii) raise those issues with the third party.
>
> It might be more complicated if access to the resource is an essential
> part of a users job. The problem here is define 'essential'.
>
> The EAA is relevant here, with the onus falling on the third party. It's
> also more complicated because something like pubmed will contain resources
> in turn provided by multiple third parties, who may have varying standards
> / policies when it comes to accessibility.
>
> So in my opinion it's a good question because of the 'what ifs' but in my
> work at University of Nottingham I do not think we are responsible for
> pubmed's accessibility.
>
> Julian
>
> > From: WebAIM-Forum < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > on behalf of
> Brian Lovely via WebAIM-Forum < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> Sent: 17 April 2025 16:53
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> Cc: Brian Lovely < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
> Subject: [WebAIM] University Resources
>
> I'm a little out of my zone here, so I hope I can word this question
> correctly. If a university provides access to outside resources, for
> example JSTOR or PubMed, is the university responsible for the
> accessibility of those resources?
>
> Thank you,
> Brian Lovely
>
> This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and
> may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in
> error, please contact the sender and delete the email and attachment. Any
> views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily
> reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. Email communications
> with the University of Nottingham may be monitored where permitted by law.
>
>
From: jp Jamous
Date: Sun, Apr 20 2025 2:18PM
Subject: Re: University Resources
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Reading your original email Brian, it requires a clarification to answer it correctly. Are you referencing accessibility through WCAG or State jurisdictional laws? I am going to answer it presuming that you are referencing WCAG.
If purchasing or obtaining any value from that third-party that is relevant to that original business services or products, then the third-party content must be accessible. Otherwise, that would break the business requirement. For example, businesses go the extra mile to research which third-party gives them the best digital integration with a cost-effective service. However, they never ask about accessibility and WCAG does not enforce that. This immediately makes the original business not liable if the third-party content is not accessible.
In today's digital ecosystem Businesses integrate heavily with other businesses to provide products and services. From signing contracts, to surveys, to payment processing. It is unfair that WCAG or ADA does not target this significant business concept as it should. Imagine if a payment system does not use SSL to encrypt credit card information. What would happen to people's business transactions? In fact, Block-Chain technology stemmed from business integration to strengthen SSL, once SSL became penetrable by hackers.
I stated above that it is unfair, because I have dealt with this recently. I have a couple of businesses that are assisting me in purchasing a property. Both of them are accessible except their document signature programs. They are both aware of my challenges with those third-party systems, but they already have ongoing contracts with them. We are not talking here about a small purchase. We are discussing lengthy contracts to purchase a property worth over $250,000.
Sure that type of contractual agreement between businesses is not easy to break out of especially if it is a long-term commitment. Yet, there has to be some way to hold businesses accountable to a certain degree of identifying accessible third-parties content before they integrate their systems. Unfortunately, WCAG and the ADA do not handle this commitment as essential, despite how integrated web sites have gotten. That really shows how far behind the 8-ball we are as a society that is trying to embrace inclusion.
I hope that helps.