Promotion of Accessible Library Resources: Perspectives and Literature Review on Cooperation with Campus Partners to Better Serve Students with Disabilities

Accessibility in academic libraries touches on many different issues, such as access to buildings and facilities, websites, software, hardware, and the library’s collections. This article reviews the literature on accessibility in higher education, focusing on the topic of cooperation among departments on university and college campuses with the goal of better serving students with disabilities. These entities include the academic library, student disability services, and teaching faculty, among other possibilities. Students with disabilities attending institutions of higher education without accessible library resources and services and students who are unaware of available resources and services may be unable to fully participate in or complete their education. However, accessibility in library resources and services helps to eliminate those barriers, but the information must be communicated to those who need it, including student disability services, teaching faculty, and students themselves. Ideally, academic libraries should collaborate with campus partners to assess existing resources and services in order to provide students with disabilities with accessible learning and support materials and make the campus more accessible for all students.