Accessibility

Why Is Your Screen So Dark?

From the time I was a young child well into my teenage years, I was constantly plagued by headaches. At the time I did not know what would trigger these headaches. I missed a lot of school as a result and it was not until I entered college that I realized I would often get a headache after being under bright fluorescent lights or staring at a bright screen for too long. As someone who now works behind a computer screen, in a building full of fluorescent lights one of the biggest things I can do to stave off a headache is lowering my screen brightness and placing every application I have in dark mode. I sometimes forget that others like their screen is bright until I have to read something off of someone else's phone or someone has to read something on mine. I am always immensely grateful that our phones have settings like this that allow us to choose what is best for our needs. However, unlike our phones and computers, there is not much I can do about the lights I work under every day than try to give my eyes breaks when I get home. 

The spaces that we work in, for me a library, do not always consider the accessibility needs of all their patrons. While I do not have decades of experience in libraries, having worked in a few academic libraries and one public library, I have noticed that academic libraries are less willing to change their infrastructure and practices to accommodate all their patrons/students. I cannot say this is true of all academic libraries, that is only where most of my experience is. 

When it comes to the physical layout of the academic libraries I have worked in, I can say there is much that needs to be done. They often cram as many tables and chairs as they can with no consideration for those require wider pathways. The pathways are usually narrow with open outlets sticking out of the floor. I cannot speak to a mobility aid user's experience with the library, but as a person who is plus size it can be really challenging and greatly inconvenient. With that being said, while we continue to convince the people in charge that there is much that needs to be physically changed in our library, the best that I can do is to continue shifting our furniture around to create wider pathways and repeatedly tell our students to close the floor outlets. 

Accessibility Features on iPads

When it comes to screens, Dark Mode is a feature that has saved me many times from the threat of daily headaches. That is why I have created a poster or infographic that shows 5 accessibility features on iPads that can help those who often strain their eyes.

Image Source: Canva

5 Accessibility Features on iPads

1. VoiceOver: This feature gives you an audio description of what is on your screen. By either touching your screen or dragging your finger over your screen, wherever your finger lands will be read aloud. VoiceOver can tell you when screen changes happen like it becomes locked or dimmed, and when your screen changes to landscape or portrait mode. This can be turned on or off through your settings or by asking Siri.

2. Magnifying App: This application comes with your iPad or iPhone and allows you to use a built-in magnifying glass to zoom in and out on objects in your surroundings. You can use it to enhance your view by zooming in, applying color filters, adding a flashlight to an object, and adjusting the contrast or brightness of what you are looking at. You can save images of what you have magnified, use them to detect people around you, detect doors around you, and get image descriptions of your surroundings.

3. Make Text Bigger and Bolder: In your settings, you can set your preferred text size and boldness on all your applications.

4. Reduce Onscreen Motion: To stop or reduce the movement on your screen, you can implement this in your settings, under accessibility. You can stop or reduce: motion, auto-play message effects, auto-play video previews, auto-play animated images, dim flashing lights, prefer a non-blinking cursor, and limit frame rate. 

5. Adjust The Display Colors: To make it easier on your eyes you can adjust the colors on your screen like inverting and make transparent items solid. You can invert colors, differentiate or tone down colors, make transparent items solid, differentiate without color, and use symbols for on/off switches. 

Where Do We Go From Here?

When it comes to accessibility, there is a plethora of knowledge that I still need to learn. Every day I learn something new, for example after scrolling through TikTok I came across Imani Barbarin's page crutches_and_spice video about hand drying etiquette. She has stitched a video someone else has made about not wanting to use hand dryers in public bathrooms. As someone who detests hand dryers, I found out that I do the very thing Imani has warned against. If you do not want to use the hand dryer, try to wring your hands over the sink to lessen the water droplets on the floor. Imani explains that navigating water droplets on the floor can be very dangerous for someone like her who uses crutches and can slip and fall because of the slippery floor. I have been guilty of shaking my hands to "air dry" them and now I make sure to wring my hands over the sink so that I do not get water droplets on the floor. Before this video, I had never given a second thought to my air drying method, air drying when there are no napkins. 

I know that for myself, there is still so much I need to be educated on and that it is my responsibility as a future librarian to make sure my library is as accessible as it can be. Not only for my workspace, but as someone who is constantly working on themselves to be better I need to make it an effort to be intentional with my accessibility and disability advocacy.