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Accessibility

The HathiTrust Digital Library is committed to making our interface as accessible as possible. We have incorporated special markup throughout the site but have focused special attention on the PageTurner (the part of the site that displays images & text of materials in the digital library). The HathiTrust PageTurner currently passes section 508 requirements.

We welcome any comments or suggestions that will help us improve it further. Please use the feedback link at the top of any page.

Services for Users Who Have Disabilities

Through a designated Proxy, Eligible Patrons at HathiTrust partner institutions can receive special access to in-copyright materials in HathiTrust. The materials must be held currently or have been held previously by the institution’s library, as indicated through print holdings information submitted to HathiTrust. See HathiTrust Print Disabilities Access: Service Description and Requirements for more information. Specific terms of access are available at http://www.hathitrust.org/access_use#ic-access.

How Access Works

We will be making improvements to this procedure as time goes on.

  • For users
    • If you find a Limited (search-only) volume you would like to access, send the volume (or a list) to the designated Proxy at your institution (see the list of institutional contacts; note that contacts are still being assembled. If no contact is listed for your institution, contact your local office that provides services for users who have print disabilities for more information). The Proxy will determine which volumes can be accessed and made available to you.
  • For Proxies
    • In order to see what materials are available to you and users at your institution (materials in HathiTrust that are held by your institution's library), you must log in to HathiTrust using your local institutional account. To do this, go to any HathiTrust web page, click "Login", and select your institution from the drop-down menu. You will be directed to your own institution to login, and then referred back to HathiTrust.
    • Navigate to the volume or volumes indicated by the user (users may contact you through the public address you gave us in the registration form, or through local-institution channels).
    • Users will not know when they request volumes if the volumes are held by your institution and therefore available, or not. Once logged in, when you perform a full-text search of fully-viewable materials (this is the default on the home page), in-copyright works that are available to your institution's users will appear as "Full view". If the work requested by the user does not appear as "Full view", it is not available to you (or to them)
      • Note: Works that are available to you will NOT appear as "Full view" in Catalog search results. The Catalog has not been configured for this functionality. If you were, however, to de-select the "Full view" default to include "Limited (search-only)" results and you clicked to view a "Limited (search-only)" catalog record, items on the record may show as "Full view" and be available (the record view indicates what is available appropriately, but Catalog search results do not).
    • When you have located a volume that is available, you may download it and provide it to the user in accordance with the terms of access in the initial registration form: HathiTrust Print Disabilities Access: Service Description and Requirements

Access Keys

We have added access keys to the PageTurner to help navigate the page.

How to use access keys

Access keys allow you to use the keyboard to skip to different sections of the page and switch book views.
Each browser uses a different combination of keys to activate an access key. Below is a list of these combinations.

PC browsers

  • Internet Explorer 6+: Hold down the ALT key, press the number or letter of the access key, release both keys then press ENTER
  • Netscape 7: Hold down the ALT key and press the number or letter of the access key
  • Mozilla/Firefox < 2.0: Hold down the ALT key and press the number or letter of the access key
  • Mozilla/Firefox 2.0+: Hold down the ALT and SHIFT keys and press the number or letter of the access key

Mac browsers

  • Internet Explorer 5+: Hold down the CTRL key and press the number or letter of the access key
  • Mozilla/Firefox: Hold down the CTRL key and press the number or letter of the access key
  • Safari: Hold down the CTRL key and press the number or letter of the access key

Access Keys assigned in HathiTrust Digital Library Pageturner

  • Access Key 2: Skip site navigation
  • Access Key 5: Switch to full text OCR for current book
  • Access Key f: Go to first page in book
  • Access Key p: Go to previous page in book
  • Access Key n: Go to next page in book
  • Access Key l: Go to last page in book