SGUL Library Accessibility Project 2023/2024
Introduction
During the 2023/2024 academic year, the library user services team collaborated with the students to gain a deeper understanding of the accessibility concerns facing students, identifying accessibility barriers within the library, and coming up with collaborative solutions. Although focussed on accessibility, the insights gained through this project serve to improve the library experience for all users. This report details the different project phases from conception to final outcomes.
The issue
Accessibility has become increasingly important to our service users, and we know that many different physical and neurological conditions can impact the accessibility of our services in the library. However, as opposed to generating problems and solutions in isolation, we wanted to involve those users who had direct experience of the accessibility concerns we were trying to address and listen to their ideas on how we might solve them.
Project planning
Project planning involved reaching out to different student bodies to recruit participants. This was achieved in collaboration with the student’s union and our disabilities services colleagues. We researched different user experience (UX) tools to design activities that would give us wide ranging insight into students needs and barriers. Importantly, We also thought about what we wanted to achieve through the project, with outcomes including service improvement recommendations, an accessibility guide for users, and a continuous commitment to appraise our service against accessibility criteria going forward.
Journey mapping
The first activity with participants was journey mapping, whereby users undertake a routine library task (e.g. booking a study pod) and document their thoughts and feeling at each stage of the process. This was giving us valuable insight into areas of our processes which are unclear to users, and how accessibility can impact some of these library journeys.
Library diaries
Library diaries provided an opportunity to dig down into some of the issues raises by the journey mapping. Participants used the diary writing format to record how they use the library on a typical day, and different things they notice whilst in the library environment, both positive and negative. This provides us with useful information on how different environmental factors affect users from an accessibility angle.
Focus groups
Lastly, we conducted two focus groups with project participants to further drill down into some of the discoveries from the journey mapping and diary writing. The focus group was a discursive environment, giving participants space to clarify their thoughts and come up with solutions that would improve their library experience. Importantly, it gave us a chance to understand how users saw the library more broadly, and what they want to see from it in the future.
Accessibility guide
An important outcome of this project was the accessibility guide. The guide went through different draft stages, with participants invited to collaborate by adding comments and edits to the live document. The resulting guide details the different accessibility equipment available in the library, library resources, and accessibility in relation to the physical library space. It also includes useful links to other services.
Service improvement
Numerous service improvements were identified and actioned as a result of this project, to the benefit of all library users. These include:
- Increased number of study pods
- Desktop plug sockets throughout the library
- Altered library signage
- Wall mounted standing desks
- Library water foundation (upcoming)
Next steps
We understand that the findings of this project need to be built upon and may change as our understanding of accessibility and neurodiversity evolves in the future. We commit continue to run iterative versions of the accessibility project each academic year.