Accommodating the disabled in library one-shots at York College/CUNY

Abstract

The library is an academic department at York College of the City University of New York and offers one-shot classes in information literacy at the for all other academic departments at the college.  Since these library classes are taught by library faculty rather than by the subject professors, it is quite possible that they would not be aware of, and therefore not accommodate, the disabled students who attend these specific information literacy classes.  This article recommends best practices for teaching librarians who may need to make accommodations for the disabled while teaching these library classes, currently used at York’s library.

The policy background that caused the library to do this is not only based in law but, as discussed here, it is also based in professional library policies put forward by the American Library Association.  This article also reviews the history of services for the disabled in libraries.