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The Indianapolis Public Library serves a population of over 900,000 across 25 locations in both urban and suburban areas. With advancing racial equality, diversity, and inclusiveness being one of the library’s key values, it is prioritizing race and intersectional identities in every activity. To drive these goals, the library implemented a series of best practices to communicate its programs and supports its patrons.
This blog post is the second in our series of articles about diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) best practices. Katie Bulloff, the Digital Marketing Manager at The Indianapolis Public Library, walked us through these steps in a webinar. You can watch the full webinar recording (which also includes tips from Stark Library) here , but if you want a quick sneak peek first, then keep reading!
Before Starting Your DEIA Efforts
DEIA is important, but it’s essential to do it well. The key to succeeding is to ensure that your library can sustainably implement and grow DEIA efforts through the long term. Katie stressed that DEIA is “not fast work, but important work.” Focus on one thing at a time and become an expert in it before you take on something else; if your team can’t sustain it, then don’t pursue multiple initiatives at the same time. Not only would burnout derail your DEIA efforts over the long term, but it can also lead to an inconsistent implementation which can create more problems for the people you want to help.
5 Accessibility Tips from Indianapolis Public Library
Tip 1: Understand that Accessibility Benefits Everyone
When making a case to an executive director, marketing manager, or other library leader about the value of investing in accessibility, Katie emphasizes that accessibility benefits everyone.
Best accessibility practices provide a better experience to those with varying visual, hearing, mobility, and other needs. However, more broadly, no one would complain about blog posts being easier to read and understand or descriptive captions explaining what’s happening in a video.
When applied to your library website, accessibility best practices will also help make your online library more visible on search engines like Google and Bing. For example, writing detailed Alt-Tag descriptions supports users with screen readers while also providing more content for search engines to crawl and place on their results pages, especially for image search results.
Tip 2: Incorporate Accessibility into Your Multimedia
Using videos and images makes your content stand out and appeal to more people, so here are some steps from Katie that will help you engage everyone you reach.
Captions
It’s important to differentiate captions from subtitles. Those outside of the accessibility space may use these terms interchangeably, but they refer to different things. Subtitles describe what is being said in a video, but otherwise, they may assume that the user can hear the music, background sounds, and other non-verbal content. Captions, on the other hand, will describe sound effects, the type of music played, and other details so that the user can understand what is happening in a video.
Katie says that captions are the “most valuable real estate you have on your videos.” Captions enable people with hearing impairments to engage with your content. When producing captions, ensure that the text is accurate in terms of the information and tone, and free of spelling and grammar errors.
Emojis and GIFs
For users relying on screen readers, Excessive emoji and GIF use can disrupt the reading experience for users. Katie recommends limiting emoji use to three per post and placing them at the end of each sentence so that they don’t interfere with the information flow. Also, you should avoid using flashing GIFs and looping GIFs (there should be a way for the user to pause them).
Hashtags
Be strategic and intentional with your hashtag use. Hashtags are an excellent way to drive awareness and traffic to your social media posts. Katie found that LinkedIn was a great place for finding DEIA-relevant hashtags, but she would place her hashtags at the end of each of her posts. This way, the hashtags won’t disrupt the flow of information going to someone using a screen reader.
Tip 3: Write Copy with Everyone in Mind
Katie recommends simplifying your language by cutting jargon, explaining abbreviations, and being as descriptive as possible. There may be times when you’ll need to use specific terminology; in such cases, clearly explain the terminology so that readers can follow.
As a general rule, it’s a good idea to aim for a Grade 7 or Grade-8-level of reading difficulty. In fact, many copywriters often consider this level a sweet spot for engaging the widest subset of people. You can use the Hemingway Editor to gauge the difficulty of your copy.
In addition, use inclusive language that reflects and respects your audience. Katie highlighted how the Indianapolis Public Library avoids using gendered language (i.e.., it uses “police officer” instead of “police man”.) Katie also recommends taking an implicit bias test (such as this one from Harvard) to become self-aware of any biases and, in turn, mitigate them when writing copy for your patrons.
Finally, aim to create copy in multiple languages so that every group in your community can understand your content. This is especially important when communicating services, like signing up for a library card, as multiple languages will help people leverage your library.
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Tip 4: Collaborate with the Experts
Accessibility is a collective effort, so it’s important to bring in subject matter experts (SMEs), especially in areas you don’t have enough internal expertise to support alone. We discuss this in more detail in a later section, but Indianapolis Public Library called on local experts ( ) to integrate new accessibility workstations at each of the library’s locations. Leveraging SMEs helps bring in knowledge you don’t internally have and, more importantly, build the best solutions for your patrons.
Tip 5: Build Accessibility into Your Time, Budget, and Processes
Katie recommends allocating resources towards your accessibility efforts, especially for essential tools. For example, Indianapolis Public Library relies on a service for transcribing videos. While the Library team can add captions to short videos, doing that for events and other long-form content is not sustainable and would lead to burnout. So, tools like help the team save time and make their accessibility workflow more efficient while also delivering best-in-class experiences to patrons.
Examples of the Indianapolis Public Library’s Accessibility Efforts
Accessibility Stations at Every Branch
A patron using Indianapolis Public Library’s Accessibility Station. Photo source: WISH TV 8
All 25 Indianapolis Public Library branches have an Accessibility Station. This is a specialized workstation designed to support people with vision, hearing, mobility, and other impairments. It was designed by the local organization Easterseals Crossroads.
This station is equipped with tools like built-in screen readers, hydraulic height-adjustable desks (which can accommodate people with wheelchairs and other mobility devices), an adjustable articulating arm for assisting users with fine motor control or fatigue issues and other supportive measures. Overall, the Accessibility Station was designed to provide people with different types of impairments a best-in-class experience so that they leverage computer software, the internet, and resources fully.
Certified Autism Center
Fort Ben Branch of Indianapolis Public Library. Photo source: AXIOS Indianapolis
The Fort Ben Branch of the Indianapolis Public Library became the first public library branch in the state of Indiana to become a Certified Autism Center. The International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education (IBCCES) accredited the branch after 85% of its staff received formal autism-specific training. Like the Accessibility Station project, Indianapolis Public Library worked with a local organization (Indie Autism Project) to bring this program to fruition.
Library Card Web Page
Indianapolis Public Library’s card registration and information page. Photo source: Indianapolis Public Library
The Indianapolis Public Library’s card registration page offers information in 12 different languages. Not only can users access them directly, but the library designed the page such that staff can quickly visit and print information packages in each of those languages. The page helps future patrons apply for a card in person or online, giving people have the option to engage in ways that work best for them.
Next Steps: Support Accessibility in Your Online Library
Your online library is a branch in of itself. Just as you would invest in making your physical locations more accessible, the same commitment should extend to your library website. Doing so will help you reach and engage more people in your community.
For a list of best web design practices, see our mini guides and checklists on web accessibility and user experience (UX). For a wider look at how public libraries are driving DEIA, see what Stark Library as well as Hamilton Public Library and others are doing.
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