Library Website
Gaston College Libraries are committed to providing a usable web experience to all users including those with special needs or disabilities. Our website has been designed to meet requirements of The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and WCAG 2. If you have difficulty accessing information or interacting with the site contact Calvin Craig at 704-922-6359.
Library Resources and Accessibility
Gaston College Libraries are committed to serving all patrons by providing equal access to resources. To ensure accessibility the Library will:
- seek to purchase resources that are WCAG 2 AA compliant
- make sure all purchases of video material are close-captioned
- maintain up to date assistive technology for student use
- provide accessibility information on all electronic resources
- provide appropriate accommodations to College students with disabilities when requested through Student Services
Assistive Technologies
These assistive technologies are available at Gaston College Libraries..
JAWS
JAWS (Job Access With Speech), is the world’s most popular screen reader, developed for computer users whose vision loss prevents them from seeing screen content or navigating with a mouse. JAWS is a screen reader program for Microsoft Windows.
Video Eye
Video Eye allows patrons who have limited vision to enhance print materials through a rotating flat-bed that projects and magnifies the image to a television monitor. The Video Eye has been used in the library and is available to be loaned out to classrooms.
Note on Headphones: Headphones are required to use the assistive technologies station. (The library does not supply headphones.)
Assistance with Research and Using the Library
Gaston College Libraries are available to provide basic library instruction to all students. If you require more in-depth instruction in the use of the library and its services (including the services outlined on this page), please schedule an appointment with Calvin Craig.
Gaston College Libraries staff provides assistance to students with disabilities by retrieving materials as needed. Request for assistance will be handled within 30 minutes after receiving a request. If the request cannot be accommodated in that time frame, the student and staff will mutually agree upon a time when the student will best be assisted.
Electronic Learning Resources
Online Catalog
Gaston College Libraries online catalog, CCLINC, has been tested and found to work with assistive technologies. Accessibility information for the SirsiDynix software, which powers the catalog interface, indicates the level of compliance with accessibility criteria.
Our Discovery/ Search Tool- Summon
Video Collections
A large portion of Gaston College Libraries DVD collection is closed captioned.
Closed captioning availability varies on videos available to students and faculty through streaming video servers like Films on Demand.
Databases
The majority of the databases provided by the Gaston College Libraries are ADA compliant. For more information on accessibility with some of our most popular databases, see below.
- EBSCO
All HTML articles in EBSCO databases have a text-to-speech option and an option to download the audio file as an MP3. However, many articles are not available in HTML. EBSCO PDFs after 2004 are ADA compliant.
For more information on EBSCO’s accessibility see their Research Interface on Accessibility.
- Credo Reference
Credo provides equivalent access for all users. For more information on Credo’s accessibility features, see their Access Policy. (Note: Includes VPAT)
- Gale (includes Gale Virtual Library)
All articles in our Gale databases are available in HTML with a text-to-speech option and the option to download the audio file as an MP3. See Gale’s accessibility policy for more information. (Note: Includes VPAT for both Gale Virtual Library and Opposing Viewpoints)
- Chadwyck-Healey (includes the Faber Poetry Library)
Chadwyck-Healey works to make their databases compliant. See full accessibility statement for more information. (Note: Includes VPAT)
- CQ Press
You can request alternative text formats for articles published CQ Researcher. For more information, see CQ Permissions.
- NC LIVE
The NC LIVE website is Section 508 compliant and conforms with the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines at level AA. For more information, view their accessibility policy.
- ProQuest
See their accessibility statement for more information. VPATs are available for many of ProQuest’s products.
- ProQuest Newsstand VPAT
- HeritageQuest VPAT
- ProQuest Academic Platform VPAT
- Hoover’s Company Profiles VPAT
- ProQuest eBrary Patron Interface VPAT
- ProQuest eBrary Platform Reader Interface VPAT
- ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source VPAT
- ProQuest Family Health VPAT
- ProQuest Research Library VPAT
- ProQuest Career & Technical Education VPAT
eBooks
The majority of our eBooks are provided by EBSCO. EBSCO eBooks are accessible to students with disabilities. See Accessibility Information for EBSCO Interfaces for system requirements and settings for eBook accessibility.
