PDA Event: Comfortable Access to Library Buildings by Users and Staff with Disabilities: Going Beyond the Americans with Disabilities Act Minimums (section 2)

Tuesday, July 20, 2021 - 10:00am to 11:30am

Registration is now full for this program's July 14 and July 20 offerings. This program is being offered a third time on July 22 and will cover the same content described below.
Please register for July 22, 10:00-11:30 a.m. CST instead. Thank you! 

Despite the Americans with Disabilities Act and relevant state building codes, many library buildings fail to deal with a range of everyday disabilities among users and staff. 

Some libraries were constructed before the ADA was first passed in 1990 and have not been required to conform with the act. A few more recent libraries have simply ignored aspects of the ADA. 

In addition, many everyday disabilities are not covered by legislation or building codes and are often ignored in building planning.

This program will review accessibility options and some possible solutions. Although by far the best time to deal with accessibility issues is before design and construction begin, many things can be done later.

Presenter Fred Schlipf will review issues and problems in library building accessibility, with a variety of possible solutions. Attendees are also welcome to describe accessibility problems at their libraries and what they have done to deal with them, or simply to raise accessibility issues for discussion with the group attending. Registrants are invited to send accessibility questions or issues with photos in advance to . Please send your questions for Fred Schlipf by July 13.

Fred Schlipf is coauthor of The Practical Handbook of Library Architecture: Creating Building Spaces that Work. He has consulted on about 200 library construction projects and has visited library buildings at every opportunity. He has been an adjunct professor at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois since 1970, where he specializes in practical issues in library architecture, and he was director of The Urbana Free Library from 1974 through 2007. He has a PhD from the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago.

Please attend this session live; it will not be recorded.

Hosted by CARLI.