Developing a Library Accessibility Plan

This book provides experienced and detailed research-based guidance for library professionals charged with creating a comprehensive accessibility plan for their organization. This practical guide is designed to help librarians understand the challenging issues often inherent in the different types of accessibility barriers.

Highly recommend Developing a Library Accessibility Plan: A Practical Guide for Librarians for any library that is serious about creating spaces and services that are accessible for all people, especially those with disabilities.

Librarians have a professional and legal obligation to ensure that library collections, buildings, programs, and services are accessible to patrons with disabilities. Many of these patrons require specific accommodations to use libraries effectively. The latest volume in the Practical Guides for Librarians series instructs librarians in planning, implementing, and assessing a customized accessibility plan. Marrall provides an overview of disability legislation and introduces readers to the major categories of disability and the adaptive techniques and technologies used to improve accessibility. Readers will learn how to assess barriers related to entrances, floor plans, electronic resources, programming, outreach, and more, as well as how to devise an accessibility plan to prioritize and then eradicate barriers. Marrall offers tools to track and evaluate results efficiently and explains how to gain the support of community and institutional partners and staff to remove barriers. The guide concludes with case studies describing how other libraries have approached accessibility issues. Libraries with limited staff and funds may have difficulty incorporating many of the suggestions without considerable assistance from community partners, but larger libraries will find a practical map for improving accessibility.

Marrall provides a comprehensive guide for understanding, improving, and advocating for greater accessibility in libraries, which can be a complex and overwhelming undertaking at times. The book offers an overview of the various aspects of accessibility in libraries, both electronic and physical, and presents readers with tips and strategies for implementing a library accessibility plan that centers people with disabilities in the process.

Libraries looking to develop accessibility plans will benefit from this guide, which contains foundational information about library accessibility and many practical resources, tips and tools to help advance and improve accessibility. Kudos to Rebecca Marrall for authoring a much-needed text on accessibility in the practical guides for librarians series.

This book is a helpful resource for those who know they have to improve their library's accessibility but aren't sure where to start. It takes users through the key concepts of library accessibility starting with the basics to ensure that a whole range of common questions are answered.

This book, a part of the Practical Guides for Librarians series provides definitions, plans for ways to resolve accessibility issues, and provides several examples of practical solutions. While the work could be read cover to cover, it is also useful to be used as a guide to specific challenges when circumstances require it…. This volume is helpful for a library that wants to begin to review their physical building and online presence for accessibility. The steps involved are well outlined and under standable. Definitions, strategies, and additional resources are abundant in the book. The "how-to" chapters at the back are especially helpful after reviewing the initial sections which can make the job of meeting accessibility goals seem a little daunting. I think this is a very useful guide to help a library through the development of an accessibility plan.

Rebecca M. Marrall is the director of technology and discovery services and an Associate Professor at Western Washington University Libraries. Her research interests are inclusive learning spaces; user experience in libraries; and accessibility practices in library spaces. She co-edited the open access text, The Research Process: Strategies for Undergraduate Students.