Assessment of digital library design guidelines to support blind and visually impaired users: a study of key stakeholders’ perspectives

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to investigate the perceptional differences of key stakeholders in assessing the Digital Library Accessibility and Usability Guidelines (DLAUG), in which design information is created and organized by types of help-seeking situations, to support blind and visually impaired (BVI) users. The stakeholders consist of BVI users, digital library (DL) developers and scholars/experts. The focus is on the identification of types of situations in which BVI users and developers show significant perception differences of DLAUG’s relevance, clarity and usefulness than the other two groups, respectively, and the associated reasons. Design/methodology/approach An in-depth survey was conducted to examine the perceptions of 150 participants representing three groups of key DL stakeholders: BVI users, DL developers and scholars/experts. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were applied. Findings The results show that BVI users and developers had significant perception differences of the relevance, clarity and usefulness of the DLAUG than the other two groups held on five situations, mainly because they played distinct roles in the development of DLs with differing goals and expectations for the DL design guidelines. Originality/value This is the first study that considers different DL stakeholders to assess DL guidelines to support BVI users.