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

摘要

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.