Access

We understand questions of access with respect to this edition to fall into two categories.

Discoverability

We have enabled various ways to discover and access the documents. We have done so first by creating thorough metadata for the items, including by employing tags and values that tie associated documents to each other via the Relation field. Several of the tools that make use of this metadata are built into the Omeka interface, including the main search box on the site, and the functionality for browsing items and collections. We also provide several mechanisms that are specific to this project. These include a full document inventory, a place index, and slideshows of documents and maps which are designed to help users discover randomly documents of interest.

Accessibility

We have sought to make the site as accesible as possible, using the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2 as our guide and using the WAVE Evaluation Tool to test individual pages.

Most critically in the context of this project, we have included tooltips to explain:

  • the controls in the custom toolbar included in our document viewer; and
  • the color-coding that differentiates categories of annotations in the reading and transcription views, editorial modifications in the intermediate view, and meaning in the semantic markup view.

As of September 1, 2022, several items remain to be accomplished. We need to:

  • ensure the accessibility of the document viewer itself;
  • add tooltips to the controls on the map viewer; 
  • add controls to adjust speed on the document and map slideshows, and allow user to move foward and backward as desired; and
  • optimize some images and test for low-bandwith situations.
Access