A study of the accessibility of college and university libraries to handicapped students since the passage of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the accessibility of college and university library programs and facilities in regard to the accessibility requirements of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and of the Section 504 regulations. Existing printed sources were used to obtain data about four-year colleges and university libraries which had undergone major construction between 1974 and 1980. The investigation revealed that the 173 libraries studied were approximately four-fifths the way towards meeting minimum accessibility standards. On the average, the libraries were only 14% short of meeting minimum physical accessibility standards. In contrast, they offered only 48% of the services for the handicapped recommended for program accessibility. There was no significant difference in the accessibility of newly constructed buildings, as compared to buildings to which additions had been made and to buildings which had been both added to and renovated. Hierarchical multivariate regression analysis was used to determine whether the factors of size, public or private affiliation; centralized or decentralized organizational structure; presence or absence of a graduate program; library type; period of construction, and amount of federal financial assistance received could be used as predictors of the degree of accessibility of a library. The factors which were significant in at least one of the three regression models studied were size, period of construction, scholastic level, and type of sponsorship.