Electronic reserves: the promise and challenge to increase accessibility

Abstract

Electronic reserves help registered campus users who need anytime‐access to documents. Electronic reserves comprise digital files, mostly HTML or PDF formats. In some circumstances the HTML or PDF file is “readable” to the sighted individual, but are sometimes either partially or completely unreadable to the visually impaired using assistive technology. Creating “accessible” PDF files poses more challenges than creating “accessible” HTML files. Several options are suggested to help solve this problem.