Towards an Accessible Academic Library: Using the IFLA Checklist

Describes and analyses the experience of applying the IFLA Checklist, Access to libraries for persons with disabilities to an academic library: the Fife Campus Library at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Dundee, Scotland. An introduction to disability legislation in the United Kingdom provides the legal framework for this paper. In the United Kingdom, this legislation has been recognized as an important incentive for libraries to improve their services to disabled people. This paper considers a number of physical and attitudinal barriers to good practice and the value of using the IFLA Checklist in overcoming some of these barriers.