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Discusses the results of a research project investigating public library compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act, 1995 (DDA). Gives an overview of the DDA and discusses public library responses to Part III of the Act, covering access to services. Describes the results of the research, which took a case study approach, focusing on public library responses in the three key areas of policies and practices, access and communications. Concludes that standards of service for people with disabilities varies considerably between public library authorities and that, although most libraries are beginning to respond to the DDA, progress is slow and concentrated on the needs of certain groups of disabled people.

This study was conducted to provide a detailed report concerning the impression of disabled users’ vis-à-vis satisfaction with the library and information services provided at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU).

To conduct the research study, 214 disabled students, the librarian and the in charge of the Braille section were surveyed using a bilateral approach, which included a questionnaire and structured interview. The data, thus, collected were analysed using the SPSS (version 23) tool.

The research data revealed that the library under study was providing adequate information resources and services to their disabled users, exclusive of subtitles digital versatile disc (DVD) and videos for deaf students. It also came to light that there is a necessity of skilled staff, proficient in sign language, interpretation and Braille reading, which the library should look into the near future. The results also highlighted that most of the users were satisfied with the resources, while least were satisfied with the services and facilities provided by the library; suggestions were listed to maximize the satisfaction level amongst users.

The present study is confined to AMU and the disabled students enrolled in various courses of study. A suitably designed survey can be applied to reveal similar trends in different institutions as well.

This study is useful for professionals pursuing an understanding of the library and information services for disabled persons. Furthermore, it is anticipated that the opinions recorded and the services highlighted will not only be useful for the particular organization but also serve the purpose for the governing bodies where the policies for these users are framed as a result of which institutions can develop effective services to access knowledge without any barrier.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically test a new disabled service user‐specific service quality model ARCHSECRET against a modified SERVQUAL model in the context of disabled students within higher education.

The application of SERVQUAL in the voluntary sector had raised serious issues on its portability into this sector in general and its ability to measure the experience of the disabled service user in particular. In consequence, a disabled service user‐specific service quality model – ARCHSECRET – was developed which led to this research being designed to compare ARCHSECRET and a modified SERVQUAL model in terms of their ability to predict and explain the variation in the service quality experience of disabled students in higher education.

ARCHSECRET was superior to the modified SERVQUAL in terms of its overall predictive power; ARCHSECRET key drivers were different and better in predictive power than those of the modified SERVQUAL; and ARCHSECRET was found to be reliable and valid for the measurement of the disabled student experience in higher education, while acting as a diagnostic tool for the identification of service quality shortfalls.

The reported research should be regarded as a pilot study whose results are worthy of further investigation among larger samples of disabled service users.

It is held that the disabled service user‐specific ARCHSECRET model has made a positive contribution to the measurement of service quality within the context of disabled students in higher education while demonstrating its superiority over the SERVQUAL scale which did not quite “measure up”.

Developing countries are endeavoring to advance into the 21st century information age. Their progress, however, is hamstrung by the dire lack of trained, skilled and knowledgeable IS workers who are able to interact with online and off‐line information sources. These countries can tap from the rich intellectual capital lying dormant within the ranks of disabled people to boost the pool of IS workers in their societies. However, before developing countries can draw on the information systems capabilities of disabled workers, these workers themselves must be able to function at par with their able‐bodied counterparts as information workers. This presupposes the availability of special‐purpose information systems devices and approaches developed for disabled users. In this paper, therefore, we examine several issues that are pertinent to IS and disabled people in developing countries, and propose an integrated infrastructure to enhance the interaction of disabled people with on‐line information sources. The study includes issues related to the suitability of different interaction methodologies and technologies for people with disabilities. Additionally, we propose the design of customized interfaces that can be used by disabled people to develop Web‐based database applications and to access and query on‐line databases.

This study aims to investigate the behaviour of building users and how this impacts upon building energy performance. Specifically, the work examines the behavioural traits of able-bodied users of a large higher education building who erroneously access and egress the building using doorways intended for disabled users.

An inductive methodological approach is adopted that uses grounded theory to devise new insights into building users’ access and egress habits. Structured interviews are conducted to collect primary data from 68 building users of a large educational building over a four-week period. Responses to questions posed provide the basis for a tabularisation of behavioural traits.

Reasons for able-bodied building users’ preferences to using disabled access are identified and discussed; these are thematically grouped under the headings of apathy, convenience, emergency, ergonomics, ignorance and phobia. Building upon these findings, the research then offers insights into the approaches that could be adopted to change the erroneous behaviours. These approaches include education of building users on the impact their behaviour has upon building performance and environmental pollution, more stringent regulation to penalise repeat offenders and changes to building entrance design using obtrusive (i.e. radio frequency identification tags) and unobstrusive control measures (i.e. a second entrance doorway or slower opening mechanism).

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to investigate the rationale for able-bodied building users erroneously using disabled persons’ access and egress doorways within a building, which as a consequence, inadvertently reduces the building’s environmental performance.

Internet technology and, in particular Web‐based services, have the potential to revolutionise approaches to learning. These new forms of learning could provide additional educational opportunities for people with special needs to support their social integration and integration into the knowledge‐based economy. This paper starts with a short presentation on open Web‐based learning environments and knowledge forums followed by a discussion of some recent results on e‐learning and special needs users. Two examples of learning portals for supporting e‐learning forums developed within the European projects, EURO H 2000 and a DAAD German‐Romanian cooperation, are given. Ways of including users with special needs in projects on the design of learning materials and environments are also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the participatory approach should be considered and applied in research for the disabled. It aims to arouse the awareness of policymakers, professionals, researchers and the general public that disabled people must not only be considered, but also invited to participate in research actively in order to bring real benefit to disabled people.

An in‐depth case study related to policy, implementation and management quality of tactile guide paths (TGP) was carried out in Hong Kong. Participatory approach was adopted to explore how to help visually impaired people (VIP) access places independently. The methods included group discussions, direct individual interviews, field studies and intensive observations.

The quality of TGP is still unsatisfactory in policy, implementation and management aspects in that VIP still face a lot of difficulties in accessing places, in particular the places they have never gone before. Two of the major causes of poor quality of TGP are misunderstanding and neglect. VIP, as well as other disabled people, still face many difficulties arising from different sources; from the grant society policies to small objects in their daily lives.

VIP should not be considered as a group of people with ills, trouble and problems in the society. Policymakers, professionals in design and implementation and management people must recognise that they should not impose their value judgments and preferences on VIP. Instead, user participation is a good and applicable approach to assure a high quality of design.

The paper offers insights into quality assurance for user‐fit designs.

The purpose of this article is to analyse the continuing problem of web accessibility for disabled people as a critical information systems issue.

The ways in which the web is used by disabled people, and problems that can arise, are described and related to the development of critical disability theory from older models of disability, including the medical and social models, noting that the social construction of disability model may tend to mask the embodied, lived experience of disability.

The lack of interaction of the critical disability approach and dominant discourses of web accessibility and internet studies, particularly in relation to embodiment, is a major contributor to the continuance of an inaccessible Worldwide web.

The paper does not offer a comprehensive set of web accessibility issues, concentrating instead on the most common problems as exemplars.

The paper raises awareness of web accessibility.

The paper brings the topic of accessibility of technology by disabled people into the critical information systems arena and also incorporates social construction of disability and theoretical considerations of embodiedness in its analysis.

Aims to present the work done in the development of a simplified office suite for disabled and focus on the use of technology applied to the area of “designing for all”. The paper presents an overview of the state‐of‐the‐art in the design for all. It provides practical references to techniques used. The main scope of the paper is to explore the developed technology and give details for the adopted mechanisms. It provides information about designing and implementing software applications for disabled and present a case study for mentally disabled. The paper presents a system that can be used by a specific target group. For this reason, it should be used as reference point for this group, although several techniques can be used for other user categories. The paper is a very useful presentation of an actual system that has been designed and implemented to cover the needs of disabled, useful for interaction with designers and researchers in assistive technology, and it fulfils the need for demonstrative technology in the area of designing for all.

Providing access to information for all users, irrespective of their physical disabilities, is a requirement for all libraries and ICT can be used to assist this. The case study describes a range of projects and services that have been developed by Gateshead Libraries using ICT to enable disabled people gain access to information. These projects range from AIRS (which started with the production of a talking newspaper in 1987), to MISSISSIPPI (which uses videotelephony for sign language communication for deaf people) to the Web accessibility guidelines used for the Gateshead Grid for Learning.