[nabs-l] accessibility of ebsco databases

[Antonio Guimaraes]

Ashley,

I'm not sure which databases are giving me this trouble, or even what journals do this,

My main issue is that sometimes it can take 30 minutes to do what a sighted person could do it for. For instants, saving a PDF file is extremely frustrating for me as a blind user.

I am a savvy computer user, and I am discouraged from doing research because of this.

It is painstakingly difficult to do certain things. It should not be so, especially in this day and age.

 I would be willing to unite forces with people to make recommendations..

 It takes anywhere from implementation with Cloud services like dropbox, to making a really good, accessible app for saving these files. No reason not to do it in 2015.

Antonio

On Jan 14, 2015, at 2:11 PM, Ashley Bramlett via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Hello Bridgit,
> Glad your shared becausebecaus e its comforting to know I'm not alone.
> Accessing my folder and its contents is a challenge. What I do is email everything in my folder to myself.
> Then, I save them. Then, I either scan them or have to use an old fashioned reader.
> I can find the edit boxes by pressing tab. But
> the combo boxes are not working.
> 
> I can help you with the  search limiters. I am able to  check boxes to limit it to peer reviewed and full text.
> If you use jaws this works.
> I would imagine window eyes uses the same commands or similar ones.
> 
> Here is  the procedure.
> 1. After you type in your search terms, find the phrase, Limit your results.
> Its near the bottom. You can find this by pressing the find command which is control F.
> Type in Limit. After exiting  the find box, your screen reader
> should be there.
> Then go line by line to see what you wish to select.
> 
> 2. If you are not familiar with the limiters, go line by line to explore options first.
> Press down arrow to do this.
> If jaws is stuck in an edit box, press escape to get out. Jaws says "list of 13 items" as I begin this.
> Here in the limiters are your options to limit to full text,  peer reviewed, certain dates, etc.
> 
> 3. Then go back to the top of the limit results list.
> Press letter x to go line by line. X is the hot key to jump to check boxes.
> 4. Press space when you hear your screen reader say full text or scholarly article, or whatever you need to check.
> This checks the boxes.
> 
> 5. Find the search button to start searching. That is very hard to find.
> Still, I may sound expert, but really I struggle due to accessibility.
> A librarian worked with me one on one to help navigate it and tell me what search limiters to put in place for best results. That is how I know what the phrase is to limit your results.
> 
> I do not know how helpful your librarians are, but if you can, I suggest getting an appointment
> with one of them because not only will you do searches with them, but they will suggest sources that are a good fit for your assignment.
> I know not all schools have one on one meetings, but its worth asking for. Also, if I could not do something do to access, the librarian would use the mouse to help me out.
> 
> HTH,
> Ashley
> 
> 
> -----Original Message----- From: Bridget Walker
> Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2015 1:25 PM
> To: Ashley Bramlett ; National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] accessibility of ebsco databases
> 
> Hi Ashley,
> I go to college in New York. I have a problem finding the check boxes that say "full text" "peer reviewed" I can usually get to the edit fields ok. I have a difficult time accessing the articles I have selected in my folder. I can get to my folder and go through the list but, like you said, the PDFS documents do not work. I have been tore lying on iBooks but, when I'm in the middle of a paper siting on the computer gets difficult because I can't copy any correct spellings easily.
> I hope this helps.
> Bridget
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
>> On Jan 14, 27 Heisei, at 12:51 PM, Ashley Bramlett via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> As I conduct research at the library, I run into access issues with many databases.
>> Not only are the pdf files hard to read with the full articles in them, but searching poses problems with jaws. When trying advanced searching, I cannot change the combo boxes from the default And to say “or”.
>> 
>> Has anyone had issues with ebsco databases? If so which ones?
>> Another challenge is finding the search button.
>> 
>> The head of the library at Northern virginia community college, called nova for short, where I’m taking electives, is going to send EBSCo a note about access. But it would be helpful to know other problems.
>> 
>> If you are a student in a Virginia college and experience database problems, please also write me off list. Maybe we can have a conference call on this.
>> I’d like to hear from other students in Virginia schools so we can write jointly to Ebsco and tell them the problems and request they fix them.
>> The same goes for other databases.
>> 
>> When I asked about research a few  months back, some of you mentioned accessible databases which you used, but for every accessible database, I would guess there are 3 that are semi accessible.
>> 
>> Thanks.
>> 
>> Ashley
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