Tammy Stitz is the Applied Science Librarian at The University of Akron, where she works with most of the engineering departments, engineering technology, and computer science. She has a MLIS from Kent State University and a MS from The University of Akron in Electrical Engineering.
Shelley Blundell is an assistant professor in journalism and communication at Youngstown State University. She has a Ph.D. in Communication and Information, an MLIS, and bachelor’s degrees in history and magazine journalism, all from Kent State University.
Blundell was briefly an instructional design librarian for the University of Akron, where she collaborated with Stitz on the creation of a comprehensive, multi-sourced rubric that assesses the compliance of online information resources with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Because many of the necessary ADA-compliance guidelines are spread across a variety of resources, Blundell and Stitz created this rubric to fill the ‘no comprehensive resource for assessing ADA compliance’ gap.
Testing the efficacy of this rubric against a sample of UA library information resource guides in a 2015-2016 research study, Blundell and Stitz have revised the original rubric they created based on study findings to make it a more robust and appropriate assessment, as well as to include elements related to universal design. They have continued to update the rubric as and when federal standards and guidelines have been introduced. It is the most up-to-date version of the rubric that appears in this wikispace.
Both Stitz and Blundell believe the rubric to be a useful, constructive tool that can be used to assess the ADA compliance of existing online materials and which can be used to make materials both ADA-compliant and universally accessible.
Author contact information
Shelley Blundell, Ph.D.
Assistant professor, Journalism and Communication, Youngstown State University
Email: sblundell@ysu.edu
Tammy Stitz, MS, MLIS
Engineering librarian, University of Akron
Email: tstitz@uakron.edu
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