THE STATE-SUPPORTED UNIVERSITY-LIBRARIES OF ALABAMA - SERVING THE NEEDS OF PATRONS WITH DISABILITIES

The Americans with Disabilities Act is a highly enforceable piece of n ational legislation that greatly affects public institutions of higher learning. Information gathered in a fall 1993 survey of the libraries at Alabama public universities acknowledged that while disabled popul ations on campuses needed to be served, they were not being served. Am ong the reasons given were lack of preparation on the library's part, lack of knowledge of the potentially disabled student populations on c ampuses, and lack of funding for needed accommodations.