Day/time: May 6, 2025, 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. EDT
Title: Accessibility metadata: challenges and ways forward
Presenters:
- Katherine Klosek, Director of Information Policy and Federal Relations, Association of Research Libraries (ARL)
- Pascal Calarco, Systems Librarian and Scholarly Communications Librarian, University of Windsor
- Julie Cardinal, retired
- Katherine McColgan, Manager, Administration and Programs, Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL)
- Chris Oliver, Head, Resource Description and Metadata Services, University of Ottawa
- Victoria Owen, Information Policy Scholar-Practitioner, University of Toronto
Description: Metadata fields for accessible works are not standardized or even required, creating challenges for people with disabilities to find books or scholarly journals in accessible format or with accessibility features enabled. In this session, library metadata experts will share updates on international initiatives to improve accessibility metadata, including updated MARC fields; activities of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) accessibility remediation metadata working group; related work of the IFLA network focused on developing best practices for recording accessibility metadata; and, examples of library publishing in Canada and the US. The panel will touch on how metadata requirements in the European Accessibility Act (EAA) might influence markets beyond those in the EU.