Originally published as Library Review Volume 54 Number 8, 2005
ISBN: 1 84544 783 2
Guest edited by: Nicholas Joint.
This Special Issue sketches the legislative underpinning to advances in the area of library disability service provision.
It also points out the role of the customer service values inherent in the library profession which should not be underestimated as a contributing factor to this story of improvement. In particular, the articles included here emphasise the need to focus on the human rather than the technological side of this subject.
Contents:
Person first, disability second: disability awareness training in libraries
This article looks at disability awareness training from a practitioner's point of view, taking into account personal experience of organising training in an academic library, the impact of the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) and the subsequent publication of a training booklet.
Auditing SCURL Special Needs Group members
This article describes how the SCURL Special Needs Group carried out an audit of individual member's facilities and services, creating a tool designed to be useful in benchmarking minimum levels of service and in encouraging libraries to share ideas and best practice.
Customers with disabilities: the academic library response
This article surveys the general academic library response within the UK to disability legislation and the growing numbers of students declaring disabilities entering higher education.
Glasgow City Council: library, information and learning services for disabled people in Glasgow
It is a great challenge for a public library service to be able to offer services to its large and diverse body of disabled users, who may need to use any part of the public library system at any time, and whose needs must be anticipated. This paper sketches how one particular public library service attempts to meet that challenge.
The web, accessibility, and inclusion: networked democracy in the United Kingdom
This paper highlights and offers guidance on good practice in web accessibility within the context of the United Kingdom government's agendas of social inclusion, widening access to education and the modernisation of public services.
Studying with special needs: some personal narratives
The paper examines the measures that libraries can take to improve the learning experience for users with special needs. The paper is written from the academic user's perspective, and demonstrates the importance of the staff-user interface, as much as of specific assistive technology.
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