Building bridges: Fostering dynamic partnerships between the library department and office of student disability services in higher education

Abstract

Building effective communication and interdepartmental partnerships are essential components of strengthening services, policies, and procedures to meet the individual information needs of students, faculty, and the college community. Despite major advancements in library services for users with disabilities, there are ongoing challenges, which need to be addressed. It is essential to develop inclusion and accessibility frameworks that serve mutual departmental interests to share and document lessons learned along the way. This article explores the evolving shared leadership between an Architecture Librarian/Liaison to the AccessAbility Center; and the Director of Student Disability Services at the City College of New York to examine strategic methods of managing, enhancing, and integrating, universal inclusivity and diversity in library services. The Librarian Liaison must take an active role in matters of accessibility policies and practices to meet user needs with cultural sensitivity. Merging the individual experiences, both authors deliver tangible solutions in creating more accessible services and environments, including an assessment checklist to demonstrate whether the Libraries have barriers and/or accessible spaces. The collaborative observations and strategic methods may be applicable to similar academic institutions that are considering transformative outreach initiatives to aid underserved populations such as library users with various disabilities.

Students with disabilities as partners: A case study on user testing an accessibility website

“…Emerging literature identifies opportunities for disability-related partnerships in postsecondary education: Disabled students are better supported in their learning when (a) instructors work closely with staff employed in campus disability offices (Austin & Peña, 2017;Scott, Markle, Wessel, & Desmond, 2016;Smith & Buchannan, 2012), teaching and learning centres, and equity/diversity offices (Fovet, Mole, Jarrett, & Syncox, 2014); (b) when disability offices work in collaboration with the library to ensure the accessibility of course material and library learning spaces (Arzola, 2016;Sanchez-Rodriguez, & LoGiudice, 2018); and (c) when teaching and learning centres collaborate with disability offices to offer new faculty orientations, training, or other programs to advance accessible education (Behling & Linder, 2017). Notably though, these partnerships are focused on (predominantly non-disabled) staff working more effectively with each other rather than involving disabled students.…”

Engaging ignored stakeholders of higher education accessibility practice: analysing the experiences of an international network of practitioners and researchers

“…For other roles there is an assumption of joint expertise: for example, awareness of students with disabilities' skills, needs and barriers, and supporting others. Sanchez-Rodriguez & LoGiudice (2018) argue that implementing accessibility related organizational change is a strenuous process and suggest that when stakeholders work together they can share the burden. The US based example they give is of a librarian and a Director of Disability Services fostering a 'dynamic partnership' through 'close professional bonds' in order to develop a more inclusive library environment for students with disabilities.…”