Hello, Colleagues!

Below is a somewhat reassuring message from one of our administrative
librarians (the one who was instrumental in negotiating the contract with
Google for digitizing the University of Michigan's 7 million volume
collection over a 6-year period) after I sent him the response (see bottom
of screen) that Kathie Schneider received when she submitted her comments
to Google.

He wrote in reference to Google:

Hey, folks.  Their answer at the end is of course the tactful public
message.  I can assure you that it's on their radar and that we've had
some
intensive discussions about it.  They have a number of issues that they're

balancing, and they're going about this with a desire to do the right
thing
on the accessibility question.  It's still very much an open and evolving
issue for them, in any case.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Schneider, Katherine S.
> Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2005 10:45 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Google print accessibility
>
> As a screen reader user, it appears that Google Print digitized images
> will not be accessible.  Other than submitting a comment on their
> comments page, which I've already done, is anyone aware of ALA or other
> group efforts to work out something?  Thanks.  Kathie
>
> Katherine Schneider, Ph.D.
> Senior Psychologist, Emerita
> Counseling Service
> University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
> [log in to unmask]

I did get a reply from google print, which I'm forwarding, but as you
can read it isn't accessible and that's that.  No mention of
alternatives like they now offer a html for pdf documents.  I wonder why
not.

Kathie

>
>

Anna Ercoli Schnitzer
Information Services Librarian
Taubman Medical Library
and Member, UM Council for Disability Concerns
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor MI 48109
[log in to unmask]

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