Web access and the law: a public policy framework
| Published date | 01 December 2002 |
| Date | 01 December 2002 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830210452604 |
| Pages | 399-405 |
| Author | Steve Noble |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
Web access and the law:
a public policy
framework
Steve Noble
Introduction
Over the past 20 years or so, libraries have seen
a number of significant changes due to
advances in information technology. But in the
most basic sense, libraries have always
depended upon ``information technology'' of
one form or another ± long before the advent of
computer-based information technology. The
gradual change from encoding information on
clay tablets to writing on papyrus scrolls was a
tremendous advancement in the information
technology of the ancient world. Later material
innovations which led to the use of vellum,
parchment, and paper, along with such
monumental language advancements as the
codification of written Greek and Latin, were
further technological innovations that helped to
foster the information revolution of late
antiquity and the middle ages. The invention of
moveable type in 1456 led to perhaps one of the
greatest information revolutions the world has
ever seen. It gives one a strange feeling to
ponder just what historians will be saying 500
years from now about the advent of the
computer in the twentieth century.
Forty years ago, the mathematician John
Kemeny predicted that the library of the year
2000 would consist almost entirely of terminals
connected to distant computer sites, where vast
holdings of digitized texts would reside in
central locations across the world (Kemeny
et al., 1962). Although Kemeny's predictions
may have been a bit premature, the advent of
the Internet ± and especially the World Wide
Web ± has led to the development of the type of
electronic infrastructure needed to set the stage
for a truly world-wide ``virtual library'' in which
any individual anywhere in the world may some
day have access to all library holdings in every
library across the globe. This most recent
innovation in ``information technology'' has a
great potential to provide a revolution in library
access previously unknown to many people
with disabilities.
Web-based library resources can easily
provide a means of removing many of the
barriers to information access commonly found
in brick and mortar libraries. All of those books
on the shelves may do little good if you cannot
see the words on the page due to a visual
disability, cannot effectively utilize the printed
The author
Steve Noble is Policy Analyst, Kentucky Assistive
Technology Service Network, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
E-mail: Steve.Noble@mail.state.ky.us
Keywords
Disabled people, Information technology, Libraries,
Information services, Internet, Law
Abstract
This article details the public policy framework that
establishes the legal foundation for requiring access to Web-
based information resources for people with disabilities.
Particular areas of focus include: the application of the fair
use doctrine to an understanding of disability access to
digital information; the application of the Americans with
Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act to
Web-based services; and the application of Section 508 of
the Rehabilitation Act to Federal Web-based resources and
the extent to which Section 508 may be applicable to states
through linkage under the Assistive Technology Act.
Electronic access
The research register for this journal is available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregisters
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
Theme articles
399
Library Hi Tech
Volume 20 .Number 4 .2002 .pp. 399±405
#MCB UP Limited .ISSN 0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/07378830210452604
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