Creating an Online Scientific Art Exhibit Formatted for People with a Visual Impairment

ABSTRACT

An online exhibit accessible by people with a visual impairment was created to accompany a university library's physical exhibit of microscopic images generated by researchers on campus as “scientific art.” This online exhibit consisted of a web page formatted for screen-reading software so that those individuals could hear descriptions of the images and envision the image patterns, shapes, textures, and perhaps colors while learning about the scientific research performed on campus. The library promoted this web page through various outlets to a wide audience to benefit patrons on and off campus. The exhibit was successful, and lessons learned through this project can be applied by other libraries undertaking similar efforts, to navigate problems and improve efficiency in implementing online exhibits for people with a visual impairment.

KEYWORDS:

• academic libraries
• accessibility
• alternative text
• assistive technologies
• online exhibit
• science education
• screen reader
• usability
• visual impairment

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Andrew Tobias of the Nanoscale Science PhD program for his assistance in creating the image, “Absorb the Spectrum.” The Office of Disability Services staff, especially Khaleel Eksheir, were helpful with their encouragement and advice regarding formatting the web page for screen readers and recruiting usability testing volunteers.

Note

Notes

1. The definition of “visual impairment” used here is based upon the International Classification of Diseases code classification H.54 from the World Health Organization's International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (2016) and refers to defects ranging from mildly diminished sight to blindness in which no light is perceived, even after treatment or refractive correction. The reader is referred to the medical literature, standards, and government documents regarding related terms, such as visual impairment, vision impairment, blindness, and low vision; application of levels of visual acuity to distinguish between disability and impairment; and the subcategories of visual impairment. These resources are listed in the Appendix.

2. JAWS (Freedom Scientific, Inc.) http://www.freedomscientific.com/Products/Blindness/JAWS

3. Read&Write (Texthelp Ltd.) https://www.texthelp.com/en-us/products/read-and-write-family

4. VoiceOver (Apple, Inc.) http://www.apple.com/accessibility/mac/vision/

5. To copy and paste this code, please refer to the image_resolution.php file at https://github.com/dereknorton/visualizingscience

6. To copy and paste this code, please refer to the markup_structure.html file at https://github.com/dereknorton/visualizingscience

7. HTML_CodeSniffer (Squiz Content Management Solutions) http://squizlabs.github.io/HTML_CodeSniffer/

8. Archive-It! (Internet Archive) https://archive-it.org/

9. Dragon Naturally Speaking (Nuance Communications, Inc.) http://www.nuance.com

10. Vixia HF M52 camcorder (Canon USA, Inc.) https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/support/details/camcorders/support-high-definition-camcorders/vixia-hf-m52

11. To copy and paste this code, please refer to the utf-8_charset.php file at https://github.com/dereknorton/visualizingscience

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Melanie Sorrell

Melanie Sorrell is the Science Librarian serving the Departments of Chemistry and Biological Sciences, the College of Computing and Informatics, and the interdisciplinary Nanoscale Science PhD program at UNC Charlotte. She earned a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and Master of Science in Veterinary Science degrees. After practicing for 15 years, she began her studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before graduating with a Master of Science in Library Science degree. Her biomedical sciences and pathology background were most helpful in recruiting and communicating with exhibit participants.

Derek Norton

Derek Norton earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Management Information Technology and Web Development from Mercyhurst University and is the J. Murrey Atkins Library software developer. He is responsible for the development and maintenance of the library website, custom web applications, and server administration. Derek is pursuing a Master of Science degree in Cyber Security from UNC Charlotte.

Jeff McAdams

Jeff McAdams earned his Master in Library Science degree from Emporia State University in Kansas. He works as the Science and Engineering Librarian at UNC Charlotte, where he is primarily involved with information literacy instruction, research consultations, and collection development for Engineering, Math, and Physics.

Rachael Winterling

Rachael Winterling is the Usability Coordinator at the J. Murrey Atkins Library, and is responsible for the life cycle of usability projects through initiating, planning, executing, and closing. She gathers and analyzes qualitative data through task-based testing, focus groups, card sorting, interviews, surveys, and paper prototyping. Rachael earned a Technical Writing graduate certificate from UNC Charlotte and a Project Management graduate certificate from Western Carolina University.

Kathleen Dipple

Kathleen Dipple earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Appalachian State University. As a doctoral candidate in Nanoscale Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, she is investigating the development of nanomaterials for highly efficient solar devices by coupling metal nanoparticles to quantum dots to improve solar energy absorption.