Schmetzke Takes Accessibility Seriously and Globally

Known statewide and stateside for his efforts to promote accessibility, the University Library's Associate Professor Axel Schmetzke is taking his message to an international stage.  Following his organization and moderation of a panel on “Accessibility of Online Resources for Users With Disabilities: An Overview of the Latest Research” at the June 2002 Annual American Library Association (ALA) Conference in Atlanta, he delivered a paper in July, “The Accessibility of Online Library Resources for People with Print Disabilities: Research and Strategies for Change” at the 8th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs (ICCHP) in Linz, Austria; his paper was published in the conference proceedings (Berlin: Springer Verlag).  During this past summer he also presented “Die Zugдnglichkeit der ‘Neuen Medien’ an amerikanischen Universitдten” (“Accessibility of ‘New Media’ at American Universities”) at a colloquium organized by ZIFF (Zentrale Institut fьr Fernstudienforschung), FernUniversitдt, Gesamthochschule Hagen, Germany.

Axel is acknowledged as one of the leading advocates of Accessibility, and has done extensive research and writing on topics related to technology and information resources for the disabled.  At UWSP, he serves as a Reference Librarian, Coordinator of Instruction, and Head of the Instructional Materials Center IMC ).  He serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal Library Hi Tech, where he is guest editor of two theme issues: Accessibility of Web-based Information Resources for People with Disabilities (Volume 20, Numbers 2 and 4).