This research will examine issues relevant to providing special facilities for the disabled in libraries, pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). It will also discuss the major trends and theories that have emerged with regard to the issues, with a view toward suggesting possible lines of discourse and practical development.
In order to appreciate what is involved in the mandate to provide special facilities for the disabled in libraries, it will be useful to look briefly at the provisions of the ADA that are directly relevant to optimal access to library resources and facilities on the part of the disabled. The ADA, passed into law in 1990 and implemented in 1991, was a revised and extended version of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Section 504 of the earlier law prohibited employment discrimination against physically disabled persons, and the entire law applied to state and local organizations that received federal funding. The 1991 law was far more comprehensive and has been described as a civil rights law for the disabled (Weston, 1994), since it applies to all institutional entities, whether federally funded or not. It enlarges the scope of the definition of disability to include physical and mental impairment both perceived and experienced by the affected individual (U.S. House, 1990). In addition, in 1984, the Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA) was amended to fund part of the regulatory mandates, by providing federal assistance to states that were enlarging the scope of service to special-needs populations (Dinerman & Hudock, 1995).
The ADA provides that disabled library patrons must have absolute access to identical service received by others unless any service different in kind is equally or more effective in degree. This dynamic begins in the parking lot and continues right through every door and other accommodation available to library patrons. At least one parking space, but four per...