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Accessibility

This guide is created for department chairs, faculty, and staff working with students needing accommodations.

EBSCO Databases

The library's databases present articles and abstracts in two different formats: PDF or HTML.

HTML

Any EBSCO database has built in text-to-speech capabilities with HTML full text documents. Any article that provides HTML full text can be read with that built-in reader. You can see more details about that in the following document.

PDF

There are a number of options for you to use screen readers to read the full text of those documents. 

  1. Adobe Reader needs to be set up for accessibility. The details on how to accomplish this can be found in the following document.
  2. For information about third party screen readers, review the following document for a comprehensive overview of all of the accessibility options you have at your disposal with EBSCO.

ARTStor

The ARTstor Digital Library is a resource that provides images for teaching, learning and scholarship. It is not possible to create a text equivalent for the images made available through the ARTstor service, since the images themselves convey meaning in a manner that cannot be adequately replicated through text. 

However, the following document discusses ARTstor's accessibility features for multimedia presentations, color, redundant links, tables, etc.
 

Proquest Databases

This page explains how you can take advantage of some of the techniques we’ve used to enhance accessibility within ProQuest. Among the tools include:

  • Site links
  • Tabs
  • Skip navigation
  • Pop-up windows
  • Text size and color
  • Background colors
  • Link colors
  • Rich media
  • Video
  • Graphics
  • PDF

Adobe Acrobat Reader

Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat both have a read aloud feature. This feature will allow pdfs that are ADA accesible to be read out loud for patrons.
 
NOTE: The absolute best way to make use of Adobe's accessibility features is to use Adobe in conjunction with your assistive technology screen reader software. The instructions below are intended for machines that do not have assistive technology installed on them.
 
In Windows OS to turn the read aloud feature on:
  • open the pdf
  • go to the View option at the top of the screen and select Read Out Loud and then scroll down to the last option listed called, Activate Read Out Loud
  • click on the screen to begin reading
  • To pause, select a specific section, or, read to the end of the document, select view, the read out loud option, and then the appropriate option (pause, etc.)
 
In Mac OS to turn the read aloud feature on:
  • open the pdf
  • go to the Edit option at the top of the screen and select Speech and then select the option, Start Speaking
  • reader will start automatically
  • To stop, select Edit at the top of the screen, then select Speech, and last select the option, Stop Speaking