title: Access to digital library databases in higher education: design problems and infrastructural gaps.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  After defining accessibility and usability, the author offers a broad survey of the research studies on digital content databases which have thus far primarily depended on data drawn from studies conducted by sighted researchers with non-disabled users employing screen readers and low vision devices.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This article aims at producing a detailed description of the difficulties confronted by blind screen reader users with online library databases which now hold most of the academic, peer-reviewed journal and periodical content essential for research and teaching in higher education.
  
  
  METHODS
  The approach taken here is borrowed from descriptive ethnography which allows the author to create a complete picture of the accessibility and usability problems faced by an experienced academic user of digital library databases and screen readers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The author provides a detailed analysis of the different aspects of accessibility issues in digital databases under several headers with a special focus on full-text PDF files.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The author emphasizes that long-term studies with actual, blind screen reader users employing both qualitative and computerized research tools can yield meaningful data for the designers and developers to improve these databases to a level that they begin to provide an equal access to the blind.
authors.affiliation: University of Washington, 1731 North Steele Street, Tacoma, WA 98406, USA. Tel.: +1 253 341 3855; E-mail: oswal@u.washington.edu.
authors.forename: Sushil K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Oswal
mesh_terms: D022126:Access to Information; D003143:Communication Devices for People with Disabilities; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic; D006801:Humans; D046609:Libraries, Digital; D011643:Publishing / Q000592:standards; D014495:Universities; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities
keywords: Accessibility; aggregate databases; blind; screen reader