This course has been designed and built by Tobe Amadi, Lizzie McCauley and Charlene King. We are the Digital Services team, part of the Digital Futures branch of the Library at the Open University (OU).

We are lucky to be part of an award winning academic library, based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom (UK). The library supports the OU's mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas.

Accessibility is core to this mission. As we specialise in online distance learning, digital accessibility is a key part of our library service. Usability plays a part in this, as well-designed systems that are easy to use are also more accessible to all of our users.

Accessibility

We have a register of all Library sites and services. We prioritise them in order of how important they are to our users and to the OU, and how much they are used. We audit them all regularly, and we have tools and software that help us to do this efficiently. Finally, we create accessibility statements and disproportionate burden claims. These explain what isn't compliant, and where users can access more support.

Usability

We design user tests that engage with our different user groups and give them tasks to complete. When we see how they use our sites and systems, we learn what works and what doesn't. Then we make improvements to Library sites and services, and keep an eye on their impact.