Creating a More Accessible Environment for Our Users with Disabilities: Responding to an Office for Civil Rights Complaint

Authors

Donna E. McCrea, University of Montana - MissoulaFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Archival Issues

Publisher

Midwest Archives Conference

Publication Date

2017

Volume

38

Issue

1

Disciplines

Library and Information Science

Abstract

In 2012, a University of Montana student advocacy organization filed a complaint with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights stating that unequal access to the university’s electronic and information technologies (EIT) resulted in discrimination against students with disabilities. This article shares ways in which the University of Montana, including its archives and special collections, responded to the resulting mandate that “employees must create, obtain, and maintain all EIT in a manner that ensures it is accessible to individuals with disabilities.” The author argues that a professional and ethical commitment to diversity, access, and use compels archivists and colleagues in the cultural heritage community to increase their awareness of accessibility issues as they relate to electronic and information technologies, and to act to eliminate barriers experienced by their users with disabilities.

Keywords

accessibility; archives; special collections;

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Recommended Citation

McCrea, Donna E. "Creating a More Accessible Environment for Our Users with Disabilities: Responding to an Office for Civil Rights Complaint." Archival Issues 38 (2017): 7-18.