Towards a Search and Navigation Platform for Making Library Websites Accessible to Blind and Visually Impaired People

Searching for and using a library website for blind and visually impaired people is challenging. This is due to the huge size of the Web and the non-adherence of libraries to follow web content accessibility guidelines. In this regard, the search engine offers no navigational support and the BVI user is left at the discretion of the web browser. The position put forward here is that existing web search engines treat BVI users similarly to sighted ones and offer no special aids to assist them in searching and navigating libraries’ websites. This paper highlights the immense need of making library websites searchable and navigable for BVI users. It investigates the current literature from the perspective that libraries in underdeveloped and developing countries are unable to meet the needs of BVI users due to limited resources including IT and technical staff, budget, and required knowledge & expertise. The findings of this study include: A focused web search engine is required to crawl, index, and search library websites and make them navigable for BVI users. It should be able to locate accessibility web pages, and if not available, create accessibility pages from the content of the website. It should make accessible the services available on the website for BVI users. This study contributes the architecture for such a focused web search engine & navigation assistant and invites researchers to work on it for making libraries’ websites accessible to BVI users.