Understandability: The Hidden Barrier and the Last Yard to Information Accessibility

Students with print disabilities frequently encounter the challenge of understanding alternative texts for complex, scholarly non-text contents. While a local solution exists, it is intellectually stimulating to explore this phenomenon more broadly in pertinent policies, standards, and academic literature. The process revealed that understandability appeared to be the most challenging barrier to information accessibility despite being one of the widely accepted accessibility principles. For students with print disabilities to fully participate in equal education, the challenge of understandability, the last yard to information accessibility, must be dealt with. On the basis of local practices and literature analysis, this short paper presents reflections and suggestions. It is believed that collaboration between scholarly publishers, digital librarians, and universities, in addition to technologies, assistive and otherwise, is the most optimal solution.