INF2165H Team 5: Annie McCarron, Leora Bromberg, Mona Farzami, Priscilla Carmini & Rebecca LaFrance. October 25, 2020

Table of Contents:

Description of Barriers

What is Libby?

Libby is a library app compatible with iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS, and web browsers that allows users to access digital content from their local public libraries, including ebooks and audiobooks. Developed by OverDrive, Inc., in 2017, Libby is a replacement for their original OverDrive app. While the classic OverDrive app is still available for download, Libby is the app of choice for the 50,000 libraries that use OverDrive to host their digital content (OverDrive, n.d.-c) and is promoted by OverDrive as the “primary and recommended app for OverDrive library users” (OverDrive, n.d.-b). While OverDrive states that the original OverDrive app remains available for users with accessibility needs, the app is less promoted and is no longer supported on all platforms, including the current MacOS.

Since its launch in 2017, Libby has received praise from sources including Forbes, Bookriot, and Time, calling it intuitive to use and even “one of the best resources out there in the e-reader world” (Rugo, 2019). However, while many users find Libby an easy and convenient way to access library content, this is not the case for all users, especially those with accessibility needs.

Who are Libby’s users?

According to OverDrive, 90% of public libraries in North America use OverDrive as a digital books platform (OverDrive, n.d.-a). Public libraries serve diverse populations, the demographics of which vary from location to location. For example, a survey conducted for the Toronto Public Library (TPL) in 2015 found that the population of Toronto, and by extension the users and potential users of the Library, have diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds (Forum Research Inc., 2015). That same survey found that over half of TPL users had searched the Library’s ebook collection (Forum Research Inc., 2015), and by 2018 TPL was one of the top two public libraries using OverDrive with more than 5 million downloads (OverDrive, 2019).

While ebook and audiobook users represent only a subset of the total population of library users and are not likely a representative sample, this group is growing. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic online services have become a major focus of public libraries worldwide due to temporary closures of physical library spaces, meaning library users only had access to digital content (American Libraries Magazine, 2020).

With the right technology, anyone can access digital library content, but for users with perceptual disabilities (as defined in the Canadian Copyright Act, Section 32(1) ebooks and audiobooks offer an accessible alternative to print books. While there are other alternatives that may be accessible to some users with perceptual disabilities, such as large print books or audiobook CDs, libraries like TPL seem to be prioritizing online content, with 163,000 audiobooks and ebooks available through OverDrive compared to just 36,000 available as large print or audiobook CDs (numbers calculated from online catalogue results).

For the purposes of this assignment, the user groups our team will focus on are those we feel are the most impacted by accessibility barriers when it comes to using Libby:

1. Users who are dependent on screen readers or other assistive technologies that rely on tags and labels for full compatibility.
2. Users with cognitive disabilities who may find the app’s interface to be unclear, counter-intuitive, and overwhelming.

Some Libby users may identify with both of these groups, and we recognize that, consistent with Microsoft’s approach to inclusive design, reducing barriers for these groups will ultimately benefit other users as well (Microsoft, 2018).

What are the main pain points/barriers and how do they impact the identified users?

In the library world, Libby is notorious for its lack of accessibility. For the purposes of this assignment, we will be focusing mainly on the Libby app features (navigating the app, accessing holds and loans, etc.) rather than the library browsing features, since that is a shared feature between Libby and the OverDrive website.

Many of Libby’s accessibility issues have been identified through expert testing conducted by the National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS). Some of the issues identified in the first NNELS (2019) report have since been resolved by OverDrive, but there are still many outstanding barriers identified in the NNELS (2020) report. The main pain points and barriers that affect access for users of screen readers or other assistive technologies outlined in the NNELS reports are:

• Libby is not compatible with screen readers – this is the most glaring accessibility barrier for our first group of identified users. Libby is a newer app, but OverDrive has not taken the steps necessary to make it compatible with screen readers despite the fact that users of screen readers are a key user group of audiobooks. When the app is launched, screen reader users receive a message advising them to use the original OverDrive app instead. The NNELS was able to test the main content of the app using the screen readers VoiceOver, TalkBack, and NVDA, but the text of the ebooks themselves is totally inaccessible. The issues below illustrate the problems users might encounter when trying to use a screen reader or other assistive technology, like keyboard or switch navigation, within the app.
• No separation of content on the screen (i.e., headers and landmarks not used) – without separation of different sections on the app screen, screen reader users have to make their way through all the content to navigate to different sections. With long lists of books, this can be especially burdensome as Libby does not separate the titles of the books (possible headers) from additional displayed information.
• No indication that new content has loaded when buttons or links are clicked – without indication, screen reader users may have to navigate through all the content on the page to find the new content that has loaded. As the NNELS notes, there is also no consistency of location between the new content and the buttons that are clicked. When additional options appear (as in the case of filters), users are not notified of this. Libby also uses “popovers” a lot, and the lack of content focus makes it hard to find and navigate to popover content.
• Button order is not defined – this makes navigating using a screen reader or other assistive technology difficult as buttons do not follow the logical order expected by their location on the page, making navigation unnecessarily confusing.
• Not all buttons are labelled – some buttons are not labelled at all and simply read “button”, so functions may not be clear to screen reader users if it is not obvious from the context of the surrounding text.
• Backfield interference – the NNELS explains this as “when new controls are painted over existing ones without first clearing the screen of its own content, and the user is still able to move to the old controls” (NNELS, 2020, p. 7). This is a specific issue for the popover menus.
• Keyboard commands not functional in Windows app – in the Windows app specifically, testers found that the tab key, a common keyboard command for screen readers and keyboard navigation, did not function properly and looped users to a blank page.
• Specific issues with NVDA – some sections of Libby contain dozens of blank lines before the main content. These lines are a specific issue for NVDA users who have to navigate through them before reaching content as the blank lines are not bypassed like they are by some other screen readers.

In addition to the above accessibility issues outlined by the NNELS, there are several other pain points and barriers that may impact users with cognitive disabilities, including:

• Cluttered interface – the app is overloaded with content, including text of varying colours and icons. It can be confusing and overwhelming, especially for users with cognitive disabilities, and there is no option to limit the amount of content displayed on the page or simplify the appearance.
• Confusing/ambiguous interface – different screens, like “Shelf” and “Library,” look the same and are not obviously differentiated despite different purposes, which may be confusing to users with cognitive disabilities.
• Poorly labelled and inconsistent filter and sort features – the filter and sort functions are poorly labelled and inconsistent throughout the app. On the “Library” screen, results can be filtered by clicking on “refine,” while in the holds and loans views on the “Shelf” screen, the filter and sort are only indicated by a faint dotted underline. This is not intuitive and has very low visibility.
• Unclear iconography/colour as only indicator of meaning – some of the icons used throughout the app are logical (such as checkmarks to indicate an item has been borrowed versus plus signs to indicate the item has not been added yet), but others are unclear such as the library icons which only use colour to indicate which library the item has been borrowed/placed on hold from. The icons may be confusing for users with cognitive disabilities, and may also be meaningless to other users, such as those who are colour blind.

All of the issues identified above present barriers to the two groups of identified users. In the design challenge assignment, we will propose multiple design fixes that we believe are feasible and will not only improve the accessibility of Libby for users of screen readers and users with cognitive disabilities but also extend to improve the user experience for everyone, making Libby a more functional and inclusive app overall.

Analysis of Redesign