2025 DAWG Technology Survey Report 

In an attempt to better serve the needs of its community, the DLF Digital Accessibility Working Group (DAWG) sent a survey to the DAWG email group asking about the technologies used by its members in their institutions. There were 12 respondents who shared 44 technologies used in their institutions. Among those 44 technologies, 30 were unique with different versions of the same platform being grouped together (e.g. different versions of Hyrax were all labeled under “Hyrax”). The majority, 75%, of respondents categorized their institutions as “Academic Library/University,” 33.3% chose “Archive/Special Collection,” 16.7% chose “Research Library,” and 8.3% chose “Gallery/Museum” or “Public Library.”  

We asked respondents how they categorized the technologies they shared in regards to the type of work the technology supported. Respondents could select multiple responses from the following:

• DAM’s (Islandora, CDM)
• Digital exhibition platforms (Omeka)
• ILS’s (Alma) 
• Institutional repositories (DSpace)
• Cataloging tools
• Publishing platforms (OJS, Pressbooks) 
• Archives tool (Archivematica)
• Tools for metadata work (open refine)
• Other [please specify] (ResearchWorks, Springshare)

The most common categories were: 

• Archives tool (ex: Archivematica) (11 responses)
• DAM’s (ex: Islandora, CDM) (10 responses)
• Institutional repositories (ex: DSpace) (7 responses)
• Publishing platforms (ex: OJS, Pressbooks) (3 responses)
• ILS’s (ex: Alma) (3 responses)

The following technologies were all assigned multiple categories:

• DIMES
  • Archives tool (ex: Archivematica)
  • Archival discovery interface
• Cantaloupe IIIF Image Server
  • Archives tool (ex: Archivematica)
  • Image server for JPEG2000s
• Aeon (Atlas)
  • Archives tool (ex: Archivematica) 
  • Request and workflow management
• Hyrax
  • DAM’s (ex: Islandora, CDM) 
  • Institutional repositories (ex: DSpace)
• Open Journal Systems
  • Publishing platforms (ex: OJS, Pressbooks) 
  • Hosting platform for OA journals
• CollectionSpace
  • Cataloging tools 
  • Museum collections management tool
• Islandora
  • DAM’s (ex: Islandora, CDM)
  • Institutional repositories (ex: DSpace)

The technologies people mentioned were:

• ArchivesSpace (5)
  • Archives tool (ex: Archivematica)
• dSpace (3)
  • Institutional repositories (ex: DSpace)
• Hyrax (3)
  • DAM’s (ex: Islandora, CDM) 
  • Institutional repositories (ex: DSpace)
• Alma/Primo (3)
  • ILS’s (ex: Alma)
• Islandora (2)
  • DAM’s (ex: Islandora, CDM)
  • Institutional repositories (ex: DSpace)
• OpenRefine (2)
  • Tools for metadata work (ex: open refine)
• The following each had one person mention them:
  • ABBYY FineReader
    • OCR software 
  • Aeon (Atlas)
    • Archives tool (ex: Archivematica) 
    • Request and workflow management 
  • Archipelago 
    • DAM’s (ex: Islandora, CDM)
  • Archivematica
    • Archives tool (ex: Archivematica) 
  • ArcLight 
    • Archives tool (ex: Archivematica)
  • Avalon Media System (custom fork)
    • DAM’s (ex: Islandora, CDM) 
  • Cantaloupe IIIF Image Server 
    • Archives tool (ex: Archivematica), Image server for JPEG2000s
  • CollectionSpace
    • Cataloging tools, Museum collections management tool
  • CONTENTdm
    • DAM’s (ex: Islandora, CDM)
  • DART (APTrust) 
    • Archives tool (ex: Archivematica)
  • Dataverse
    • Institutional repositories (ex: DSpace) 
  • DIMES (Rockefeller Archive Center)
    • Archives tool (ex: Archivematica)
    • Archival discovery interface
  • DuraCloud
    • Digital preservation
  • Elasticsearch
    • Distributed search engine
  • Esploro
    • Institutional repositories (ex: DSpace) 
  • Fedora (Lyrasis)
    • Institutional repositories (ex: DSpace) 
  • Janeway
    • Publishing platforms (ex: OJS, Pressbooks) 
  • MarcEdit
    • Cataloging tools
  • Matomo
    • Web analytics tool 
  • Omeka
    • Digital exhibition platforms (ex: Omeka) 
  • Open Journal Systems
    • Publishing platforms (ex: OJS, Pressbooks), Hosting platform for OA journals
  • osTicket
    • Support ticket system
  • PressBooks
    • Publishing platforms (ex: OJS, Pressbooks) 
  • TIND DA
    • DAM’s (ex: Islandora, CDM)

With this information, we intend to develop more activities based around examining and developing accessibility practices for these tools. We thank everyone who responded for their time. Keep an eye out for new audits, policy reviews and recommendations, programs, and conversations in the upcoming years. 

Posted on behalf of the DAWG Admin Team

Wendy Roberston

Jasmine Clark