Title: | The Opportunities and Challenges of the Digital Age: A Blind User's Perspective |
Author(s): | Carey, Kevin |
Subject(s): | Library services for the visually impaired |
Abstract: | Library services for blind and visually impaired people (VIPs) have
been inextricably tied up with alternative format production, which
has never risen above 4 percent of standard-text publishing. The
impact of digital publishing has been modest on Braille, modified
print and audio; this partly results from production methods but also
from defensive copyright in which the rights of authors outweigh consumer
access rights. In this instance librarians should: assert customer
rights against author rights; require piracy evidence; work towards
a global digital accessibility library; and advocate a generic right to
information. In a global digitally converged environment VIPs will
need help with navigation, data evaluation and file migration; these
needs will alter the traditional, neutral, role of librarians, transforming
them into facilitators, covering what were traditionally described
as broadcasting and telecommunications. The biggest single problem
for VIPs will be the explosion of digital static and moving pictures. |
Issue Date: | 2007 |
Publisher: | Johns Hopkins University Press and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
Citation Info: | In Library Trends 55(4) Spring 2007: 767–784. |
Genre: | Article |
Type: | Text |
Language: | English |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2142/3754 |
ISSN: | 0024-2594 |
Publication Status: | published or submitted for publication |
Rights Information: | Copyright 2007 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois |
Date Available in IDEALS: | 2008-03-05 |