Kaitlin Stack Whitney Rochester Institute of Technology
Julia Perrone Kent State University Willard Library of Battle Creek
Christie A. Bhalai Kent State University
Source
DOI: 10.1162/qss_a_00338
Abstract
In recent decades, there has been a move to “open” science and research. One component of open access is ‘accessibility,’ often used to mean data and other products are free to use by others. However, accessibility also refers to considering and meeting the needs of people with disabilities. Our objective was to evaluate how open access journals incorporate disability accessibility as part of publishing. Using a random sample of 300 English language journals and image accessibility as a lens, we assessed author guidelines. Of 289 journals with guidelines, 38 (13%) included color choice, 6 (∼2%) included contrast ratios, and none included alternative text. We also assessed the open access statements for the same 300 journals to understand how they conceive of openness and accessibility. Of the 298 journals with open access statements, 228 (∼77%) included the words ‘access’ or ‘accessibility.’ Yet none included ‘disability’ or ‘disabled’ and only 2 journals (<1%) mentioned ‘inclusive’ or ‘inclusion.’ Our findings indicate that open access journals sampled are not considering disability accessibility in their submission guidelines or open access frameworks. Incorporating disability accessibility into open scholarship considerations is critical to bridge, and not exacerbate, information inequalities for people with disabilities.
We assessed author guidelines for journals in our dataset (n=300) for journals with and without stipulations for image guidelines, alternative text, contrast guidelines for images, and color choice guidelines. Of the 300 journals surveyed in the study, 289 had author submission guidelines, and of those, 213 (~74%) had guidelines for images. Light grey bars show journals without those elements and dark grey bars show journals with those guidelines. No journals required alternative text to accompany images, a small number (13%) included guidance about color choices, and very few included contrast ratio guidelines for images (~2%). Source: 10.1162/qss_a_00338
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
