Virtual Libraries Initiatives with Usable Results for Print Disabled People

Abstract

Digitization is one key objective at the beginning of the information society. More and more efforts are spent to make documents usable on computers and via the Internet. This also addresses a major need of print disabled people. Access to documents in digital format is the prerequisite to be able to apply assistive technology to get access to documents at the Human Computer Interface (HCI). This paper presents the initiative “Austrian Literature Online” (ALO) and how this project addresses the needs of print disabled people. A virtual library system was developed for presentation and preservation purposes of old and rare literature. This system and the documents handled are designed according to the needs of print disabled people. Till now copyright free literature has been made available in accessible formats. The system is also developed further to provide blind and visually handicapped students a convenient access to study literature. Other projects following the ALO initiative extended the project that the corpus of materials that will be available in the Document Management System (DMS) will increase dramatically in the next years. [1]