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CHORUS Forum: Accessibility—How is it going?
CHORUS Forum: Accessibility—How is it going?
(View my "From Compliance to Belonging" slides with full transcript in Speaker Notes,)
Before transitioning to tools and technologies, I want to address something more fundamental:
Accessibility requires partnership, not assumption.
We can’t design for disabled users without actually engaging disabled users—and the campus and community partners who are already doing this work.
That includes disability services offices and external organizations like the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled.
And we need clear, stigma-free ways for people to report barriers and request alternative formats with defined processes in place to ensure prompt response.
Because accessibility isn’t something we get declare; it’s something users experience—and tell us about.
Slow Librarianship: Reflections and Practices, Part 2 book talk
Slow Librarianship: Reflections and Practices, Part 2 book talk
(View my "The Paradox of Pace: Slow Librarianship Through a Disability Lens" slides with full transcript in Speaker Notes)
Rupert was a pug-beagle mix with heart disease, arthritis, seizures, and spinal issues. He took more than twenty pills a day and had four specialists. Our life revolved around alarms, appointments, and compounding pharmacies. But Rupert also loved sunbathing. And puzzle toys. And hash browns after vet visits.
I write that his “lessons on the relentless rhythm of care, the constant negotiation of needs, and the interconnectedness of body, mind, and environment illuminated the paradoxes of slow living.” He taught me to ask, over and over: How does Rupert feel today? And somewhere along the way, I began asking myself the same question.
This chapter combines personal narrative with critical analysis because we can’t separate our bodies from our scholarship. As Donna Haraway reminds us, “Situated knowledges are about communities, not about isolated individuals.” What I know of navigating vocational awe and tenure with all of you fellow librarians, I know from within my disabled, chronically ill, neurodivergent body. It is from that situated knowledge I explore three paradoxes of slow librarianship.
Equity By Design: Digital Accessibility Requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act
Equity By Design: Digital Accessibility Requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act
Equity by Design SLRC 2025.pptx(View Equity by Design PDF featuring slides with transcript)
Of course, even with a plan in place, perfect digital accessibility doesn’t exist, and that’s okay. There will always be competing access needs, changing technology, and limited time and staff capacity. Even if we fix every known barrier today, only another person—another user—can tell us if something is truly accessible for them. That’s why we need to be ready not just to prevent barriers, but to respond when barriers are discovered. The goal is to make it easy for patrons to tell us what they need and to have a clear process for responding.
Thinking about asynchronous feedback options: Are requests and barriers routed to someone who knows how to respond promptly?
For synchronous interactions: Make sure staff feel confident and supported when responding to non-routine requests. For instance, can a staff member show a patron how to navigate a database or scan a book chapter into an accessible file? And are staff aware that employees and patrons may communicate differently—for instance, preferring text, email, AAC, or writing over speech—reply in ways that respect those preferences?
Unpacking Ableism and Embracing Disability Identity
Unpacking Ableism and Embracing Disability Identity
(View the transcript for my answers to all five questions via this Google Doc)
Faculty participation in the Disability+ FSA significantly lags behind staff participation, and I know based on direct communication with faculty that they do not see any benefit to being associated with the group let alone pursuing disability scholarship or service. One colleague, who is a member of the group, recently published a piece on slow scholarship in which they discuss their experiences as a disabled academic. However, that brilliant, 15-page piece doesn’t contribute to their application for promotion and tenure because writing on lived experience doesn’t qualify as scholarship.
Admittedly, none of this addresses the additional difficulties of getting, keeping, and moving up in a job that are faced by those with multiple non-dominant identities. As a white librarian with more economic stability than the rest of my family, I take seriously the call to use my privilege to shine a light on inequalities in librarianship and academia. This includes disclosing, presenting on, and writing about my disability identity despite having non-apparent disabilities. I encourage other gallery, library, archives, and museum workers, especially those at the manager and administrator level, who have similar privileges to do the same. In this way, we can normalize sharing access needs and discussing barriers while helping all librarians thrive.
Building your Digital Accessibility Strategy: A Workshop to Help Move from Theory to Practice
Building your Digital Accessibility Strategy: A Workshop to Help Move from Theory to Practice
ALA 2025 Digital Accessibility Workshop.pptx(View Build Your Digital Accessibility Strategy PDF)
This three-hour pre-conference workshop was facilitated in three distinct sections:
An overview of these new ADA rules including what libraries are covered with their deadlines and what online content is covered and the exceptions the rule has in place.
Strategies for living with the rules in your libraries including how to triage a library’s priorities towards universal access and how to leverage licensing and copyright towards fulfilling the rules.
Finally, a hands-on digital accessibility workshop where we’ll cover the common accessibility barriers and how they impact people with disabilities. We’ll look at both common web content platforms and digital documents.
Revised Americans with Disabilities Act rules published in 2024 stipulate that all local and state governmental entities—including 85% of libraries nationwide—must make their websites, mobile apps, and online documents accessible by 2026 or 2027. This workshop will delve into what libraries need to know about this rule; discuss strategies for prioritizing the workflow; share resources for staying focused on providing universal access to information; and provide hands-on experience addressing digital accessibility issues.
Beyond Gratitude: Why Disabled Workers Must Advocate for Fair Pay
Beyond Gratitude: Why Disabled Workers Must Advocate for Fair Pay
Equal Pay Day 2025 presentation FINAL.pptxIn the face of these disappointing numbers—56, 45, and 44 cents on the dollar—and amid the current climate of mass firings affecting our families and friends, you may wonder: Should employees dare to ask for a raise in the name of fair pay? Is it 'appropriate' to negotiate a higher salary when employers are quick to point out how lucky we are for still having a job at all?
Indeed, this is precisely where the disabled perspective becomes revolutionary.
This session is titled "Beyond Gratitude: Why Disabled Workers Must Advocate for Fair Pay." There can often be an expectation that disabled employees should just be grateful to have a job, period. This expectation is based on the notion that disabled, neurodivergent, and chronically ill workers cannot be as productive as non-disabled workers. It is also based on the understanding that providing accommodations is a favor, something nice that employers do at great expense and trouble.
ACRL DOLS Anti-Racism and EDI Committee Panel
ACRL DOLS Anti-Racism and EDI Committee Panel
What practices are you employing to build anti-racism and EDI into your distance and online learning work?
My colleagues have talked some about how important technology is for teaching and learning is online, and I just want to expand on this by emphasizing that: We must extend the same criticality to technology that we apply to libraries, colleges, and labor. At the individual level, and especially for individuals with budgetary input, that means selecting the most accessible, learner-affordable, open source software and service providers. For instance:
Padlet didn’t offer alt text capabilities until early last year, 2024. When I shared that information with folks requesting a library-wide subscription, they were first shocked (it was 2024, after all!) and then supportive of the decision to not purchase that tool. When that basic accessibility feature was implemented, IT reevaluated requests and moved forward with the purchase.
As the university level, it means establishing ethical edtech values, incorporating diverse users in the technology governance process, and developing a rubric to evaluate enterprise-wide technology requests. This is especially important due to increased marketing of and investment in Generative AI. For instance: Are student concerns and recommendations reflected in university guidance and training for classroom instructors? Are classroom instructors and university administration together in dialog about how contracts with vendors may introduce risks related to security and sustainability?
Finally, are we protecting ourselves and each other by understanding and claiming user privacy? Freedom of Information Act requests related to DEIA work seem to be increasing; do you know how access to personal devices with saved work accounts or two-factor authentication apps may be included in such requests? My own library is seeking guidance on this from both our Office of General Counsel and Office of Technology Services. I encourage your own library to do the same.
Teaching and Learning with AI 2024
Teaching and Learning with AI 2024
I am...
Former K12 classroom teacher and tutor;
Current Learning Technologies Librarian;
College of Education liaison to distance graduate students who are themselves teachers;
Formerly of the Research & Instruction department, now in Library IT;
Co-designer and co-teacher of the library’s semester-long three-credit course;
Chair of the university’s Information and Instructional Technology Committee;
Co-chair of the library’s Accessibility Team and library representative on the university’s Accessibility Advisory Group
Co-founder and co-chair of the Disability, Neurodivergence, and Chronic Illness Faculty and Staff Association / Affinity Group; and
ACRL Distance and Online Learning Section's Vice Chair / Chair Elect.
In other words: I’m an accessibility evangelist and teacher first, a digital pedagogy practitioner and critical technology enthusiast second, and a teaching-systems-liaison librarian third. These identities—and the inherently associated values of inclusion, critical pedagogy, student-centered learning experience design, privacy, and security—guide my work, including my approach to generative artificial intelligence.
TU Educators Summit 2024
TU Educators Summit 2024
“The real behavioral question is not 'Do students prefer print OR electronic?' but 'WHEN do they prefer print and WHEN electronic?'” (Mizrachi & Salaz, 2020, p. 816).
Digital reading and annotation are often more affordable, sustainable, convenient, and accessible for learners and scholars. Digital reading and annotation are not, however, the equivalent of their print alternatives: Specific skills, strategies, and confidences must be developed, and different tools must be used. Without direct instruction and consistent practice in digital reading and annotation, the academic success and reading identities of all students are negatively impacted.
MD Tech Connect 2023
MD Tech Connect 2023
What did we as CoP leaders do to facilitate the CoP and support tech adoption?
Maximize communication: Supplement meetings with emails and teams-based direct messaging (via WebEx, Microsoft Teams, Slack, etc.) that all CoP members are invited to initiate.
Longevity as sustainability: Some seasons are for seeding (inspiration), some seasons are for harvesting (production), so encourage members to drop in for meetings and share only when ready.
Embrace a growth mindset and embody playful learning: Balance structure with surprise.
Trust the connections: Allow flexibility to experiment without any agenda – Members will organically create content that is most relevant to their lives, personal (such as famous guitar player crosswords) or professional, and the practice of individual creativity complemented by collective celebration benefits morale beyond the CoP.
Expand your knowledge base: Welcome an outside practicioner to help launch the CoP! You don't know what you don't know... but someone else may know it and be willing to share it. Consider inviting them for a second visit some time later after members have developed more specific questions and encountered specific challenges.
Encourage individual members to:
Block off time for creation
Storyboard ideas to make the creation more streamlined
Ask the CoP for troubleshooting help
Share creations with the rest of the CoP for feedback
Distance Library Services 2022
Distance Library Services 2022
My advice is grounded in the acknowledgement that too many people, higher education workers and students alike, have primarily had negative experiences teaching, learning, collaborating, and connecting online. Those past experiences color their present expectations and, by extension, negatively impact future attempts with technology-enhanced interactions. Our most important job as distance library workers, then, may be to loudly and frequently share all that drew us to this work and keeps us doing it. When we share these experiences and visions, we help others realize better alternatives are possible. Ultimately: When we share the positive impacts of eLearning and virtual relationships on health, happiness, productivity, and achievement, we facilitate individual as well as programmatic reimaginings of both distance education and library engagement!
Conference on Academic Library Management 2022
Conference on Academic Library Management 2022
CALM 2022 ADA Accommodations Public.pptxI’m grateful the accommodation process worked as I’d hoped, but big picture-wise: Disabled folks shouldn’t have to bet on empathetic supervisors, compassionate OHR reps, or timely and accurate medical diagnoses. We shouldn’t have to be unfailingly personable, strategic self-advocates, exceptional workers, or forgiving teachers of our disability in particular and ableism in general. We shouldn’t even have to claim disability. We should, all, just be able to initiate conversations with our employers about the barriers that keep us from doing our best work and the supports that will resolve them. Until we achieve that goal, though, let’s take advantage of the systems we currently have.
Towson Conference for Academic Libraries 2021
Towson Conference for Academic Libraries 2021
TCAL 2021 Cite for more eyes.pptxOur workshop experience was shaped by these principles for engagement:
1) Ease of access. We lessened the barrier to entry by not requiring advance registration or product installation;
2) Care. Breaks were built in and folks were encouraged to be only as present as they were able and participate in whatever way made sense, via chat or mic, with camera on or off;
3) Centering lived experience. We emphasized our own limited perspectives and invited participant experiences via brief polls; and
4) Accountability. When our community explicitly tells us or indirectly shows us things that keep them from attending, enjoying, or recommending program, we listen and respond.
Library Instruction Tennessee 2021
Library Instruction Tennessee 2021
LIT 2021 Ableism Slides Public.pptxWhether teaching online or on-campus, I center disability. I encourage folks to contact me and collaborate however they prefer. My student hours are flexible and include weeknights and weekends. I stress that, although I’ve done my best to address known issues of inaccessibility, only another human can determine if something is truly accessible. As such, they’re welcome to contact me directly with concerns or submit them anonymously via our library web form. ... Ultimately, this has facilitated some incredible opportunities to work with disabled students previously reluctant to reach out due to library anxiety and discrimination.
LOEX 2019
LOEX 2019
LOEX poster final.pdf2nd Annual iSchool Symposium (UMD-CP)
2nd Annual iSchool Symposium (UMD-CP)
iSchool Symposium final.pdf“The real behavioral question is not 'Do students prefer print OR electronic?' but 'WHEN do they prefer print and WHEN electronic?'” (Mizrachi & Salaz, 2020, p. 816).
Digital reading and annotation are often more affordable, sustainable, convenient, and accessible for learners and scholars. Digital reading and annotation are not, however, the equivalent of their print alternatives: Specific skills, strategies, and confidences must be developed, and different tools must be used. Without direct instruction and consistent practice in digital reading and annotation, the academic success and reading identities of all students are negatively impacted.
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