National Library of Serbia: Free and Open Software tools improve access to knowledge for visually impaired library users

A case study from the EIFL-FOSS programme which outlines how the National Library of Serbia used FOSS tools to improve the library experience for patrons with a print impairment

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ABOUT THE RESOURCE

TYPE:
Case Study
AUTHOR:
Milunovic, Dragana
DATE:
December 2013
DOCUMENT LANGUAGE:
English
OTHER LANGUAGES:

In Serbia, the establishment of a Centre for Blind and Visually Impaired People in 2011 at the National Library of Serbia (NLS) was the catalyst for an increasing focus on supporting disabled library patrons nation-wide.

The centre offers a range of tools to support blind and visually impaired patrons, including FOSS tools, and is planning to roll out further services to support other disabled patrons.

One of the FOSS tools is NVDA, a free software that enables blind and vision impaired patrons to use a computer by communicating what is on the screen using a synthetic voice or braille.

Future developments include a plan for building a digital library for the blind, which will help to ensure a range of accessible formats available for all types of print impaired patrons. Then NLS may need other software (possibly including FOSS versions) such as text-to-speech software, screen magnifiers, and text/background colour change tools.