Libraries and the empowerment of persons with disabilities: An introduction
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb047976 |
| Published date | 01 January 1996 |
| Pages | 24-26 |
| Date | 01 January 1996 |
| Author | Tom McNulty |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
LIBRARIES AND THE EMPOWERMENT OF
PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES: AN INTRODUCTION
Tom McNulty
A few years ago, when the Americans with
Disabilities Act was new and causing much concern
among librarians and library administrators, it was
difficult to find an issue of any major library science
journal that did not address the legal issues surrounding
access to library facilities and services. Librarians'
interest in providing access to their services and
collections is not new, but attention in the 1990s seems
to have shifted away from what we can do toward what
we must do for our user population with special needs.
The rapid refinement of adaptive technology over
the last decade or so has probably generated more
questions than it has provided answers vis a vis access
to libraries and their collections and
services.
With this
in mind, earlier in the year the editorial board of the
quarterly electronic journal
Information Technology
and
Disabilities decided to devote one entire issue to library
access, and it is with great pride that we are co-publish-
ing this special issue with Library Hi Tech.
Our initial call for articles, sent out electronically
to most of the major discussion groups (listservs) in
the areas of education and rehabilitation as well as
librarianship, generated a great deal of interest; the
articles that follow represent the best of those submit-
ted. Not surprisingly, many of the articles that were
submitted for inclusion in this special issue focus on
information technology in general and access to
Internet-based resources in particular, and the arrange-
ment of articles reflects this trend.
While we are all concerned with the vast store of
information available remotely via the Internet, we
should not lose sight of the fact that libraries are
buildings and buildings pose access challenges to
persons with disabilities. Our first article discusses the
issue of architectural barriers in libraries and identifies
those elements that can make navigating libraries easier
for users with a wide range of disabilities. In "Way-
finding in Libraries," Susan Gilbert Beck provides an
excellent survey of
the
literature on physical access to
libraries within the context of user-centered library
planning. Beck's analysis of the way finding experiences
of individuals with special needs, including those with
physical and cognitive disabilities
as
well
as
the elderly,
draws on the literatures of both library science and
architecture and offers a good deal of practical advice
to the librarian concerned with increasing the ease of
access to her or his library.
As all librarians know, the logical arrangement
of the library's physical space, including proper
signage, can make one's work easier; once inside the
library, however, users continue to need help, from
one-on-one training in the use of
a
particular reference
tool to bibliographic instruction and orientation sessions
in college and university libraries. Our second article,
McNulty is a librarian for disabled readers' services
at Bobst Library, New York University. He
is also
editor-
in-chief of
Information Technology
and
Disabilities
and
a contributing editor to Library Hi Tech News.
Acknowledgment: As editor-in-chief of Informa-
tion Technology and Disabilities (see sidebar for
subscription information), I would like to thank Edward
Wall, editor and publisher of Library Hi Tech (Pierian
Press),
for supporting the co-publication of this issue;
Ken Wachsberger, journals editor at Pierian
Press,
who
put so much time and effort into it as well; and to the
editorial staffs of both journals. Finally, we were
fortunate to attract outstanding authors and our thanks
go to them, as well as to the many reviewers whose
constructive criticism was appreciated by the authors.
24
LIBRARY
HI
TECH
— TOM
MCNULTY
—
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