Library Facilities for the Disabled

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 st

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gaged in efforts to respond creatively and with a view toward complete compliance with the law. The American Library Association, an advocacy and professional group, has affiliated with university-based computer developers and exploited the power of the Internet to assist libraries in coming into full compliance with ADA. One such effort was a training program for librarians and volunteers titled "Universal Access: Electronic Resources in Libraries." Key points of program information include training personnel to recognize and assess the needs and issues that come into play with regard to the access of electronic resources by the disabled (Wisconsin, 2000). Writing in 1995, Behrmann touts the benefits of desktop-publishing technology, multimedia (CD-ROM) learning software, and computer-screen graphics that can seize the attention of disabled persons who might be easily distracted or physically prevented from meeting the demands of ordinary library use. The term media center as applied to disabled library patrons was at that time connected to the fact that physically and/or mentally disabled persons may lack access to traditional library facilities that others take for granted, such as book stacks, reading carrels, and so on. In
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Approximate Word count = 1874
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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