Colleges and universities have offices to support students with disabilities, but those offices do not serve all students. In the 2019-2020 school year, more than 20% of undergraduate students reported having a disability, while only 8% disclosed a disability to their campus support office. This suggests that at least one of every eight undergraduate students has a disability for which they are not receiving support.

There are many reasons students do not seek support. Some are unaware that resources are available. For those who are aware, stigma and shame are sometimes a barrier to seeking support. In other cases, the process for receiving accommodations may be unclear or burdensome. Lastly, resource offices are frequently understaffed and underfunded.

As the evaluator of the ALA’s Libraries Transforming Communities (LTC) project, we’ve heard from hundreds of libraries on accessibility upgrades — including rural college and research libraries. By actively involving students with disabilities in the planning and design of programs and services, these libraries have expanded their ability to effectively serve patrons from this historically excluded group. In this blog post, which is based on a presentation we made at the 2025 ACRL conference, we share how three rural academic libraries are discovering new ways to support students with disabilities.

Cecil W. Robbins Library

At Louisburg College (NC), staff at the Cecil W. Robbins Library worked with the college’s Learning Partners program (which supports students with learning differences) to “plan, design & implement programs & spaces that would delight, intrigue, & help educate in more successful & enjoyable ways.” Their efforts have yielded four upgrades:

• A sensory relaxation room featuring flexible seating (beanbags, rocking chairs), soft lighting, noise-canceling headphones, and options for tactile activities (coloring, crafts, fidget devices);
• A new book club more aligned with student interests;
• A training seminar for faculty and library staff on “Supporting Students Who Learn Differently,” led by an instructional specialist from a nearby university; and
• An expanded library collection whose materials now “more closely mirrored the makeup of our current student population.”

“One of our proudest accomplishments,” says library director Kristine M. Jones, “was getting to know the Learning Partners, Academic Success, and Athletic staff on a deeper level to increase collegiality and collaboration.”

“Relationships and frequent interaction,” Jones adds, “are critical to library, staff, and student success. We all grew by learning about campus wide needs rather than only our departments.”

Stanly Community College Library

Prior to receiving an LTC grant, staff at the Stanley Community College Library in Albemarle (NC) had identified their facility’s heavy doors as a barrier to accessibility. A community conversation open to members of the public with disabilities confirmed this as a priority goal of their project. It also yielded a number of other recommended accessibility upgrades. Those in attendance were

able to identify items that the library staff sees every single day but that has not become a focal point for needing change, such as the font size on some of the signs, leaving space open at certain tables for wheelchairs, and completing an annual ADA audit with the college’s facilities department.

Clifton M. Miller Library

In Chestertown, MD, staff at Washington College’s Clifton M. Miller Library worked with the Office of Academic Success (which handles accommodations) to recruit students for focus groups on library accessibility for sensory needs. On the basis of their input, the library added dimmable lights and varied seating options to study rooms. In collaboration with the school's Geographic Information System Mapping Lab and Virtual and Augmented Reality Design Studio, they also began development of an interactive sensory map of the library space allowing students to filter for noise, crowding, light, and seating availability.

The library’s accessibility upgrades attracted the attention of others throughout the college. “The biggest win in our minds,” says public services librarian Andrea Boothby Rice,

was when three separate departments heard about our projects and reached out because they either wanted to collaborate or students requested similar changes to their spaces and they wanted to learn from us. We were thrilled that the idea of more flexible spaces with student well-being in mind was taking hold and that the library was leading that conversation.

Let’s Put it To Work

Regardless of their size, type, or location, all academic libraries can become more accessible to patrons with disabilities. If accessibility work is to be effective, it is important to:

• Partner with disability experts, such as

  • Students with disabilities;
  • Accommodations / Disability Services offices;
  • Faculty in education or health departments (at your school or others nearby); and
  • Local chapters of nonprofits like ARC or Easterseals, or regional ADA Centers or Centers for Independent Living.

• Provide multiple modalities for participation

  • Synchronous (live discussion) / asynchronous (survey, suggestion box);
  • In-person (at the library or elsewhere on campus) / virtual; and
  • Spoken / written / visual.

• Make sure promotional materials are accessible

  • High contrast;
  • Large, well-spaced font;
  • Plain language;
  • Alt text for images; and
  • Captions or transcripts for videos.

• Remember that even small changes can go a long way

  • Noise-canceling headphones and fidget devices for sensory regulation;
  • Designated quiet / low-lighting spaces or times;
  • Spacing furniture and shelving to give mobility aid users room to maneuver; and
  • Clear signage for wayfinding.

In addition to these recommendations, adopting the principles of Universal Design (UD) is an important pathway to accessibility. Rather than treating disability as a problem to accommodate, UD focuses on building experiences and spaces that are accessible to a broad range of human ages, sizes, and abilities. UD may be particularly important for students who either feel uncomfortable disclosing their disability or don't know what support would be valuable.

About This Article

This article is authored by Knology, and is part of a series of blog posts exploring how libraries that received funds through ALA’s LTC: Accessible Small & Rural Communities are working to better meet the needs of patrons with disabilities. In other posts in this series, we look at attempts to put the disability rights movement’s ethic of “Nothing About Us Without Us” into practice, consider efforts focused on neurodivergent patrons and older adults, and look at how small and rural libraries are creating accessible community conversations.

You can also read about how these libraries are overcoming challenges to planned accessibility upgrades, building partnerships to address community accessibility needs, and improving patrons’ experiences. Other blogs in this series offer guidance on how to create sensory-friendly programs, how to talk about disability, and how to incorporate accessibility into library strategic planning.

For stories of what individual libraries are doing, see the case studies we’ve published about the accessibility work going on at the Lee Public Library, Jessie E. McCully Memorial Library, Beals Memorial Library, and Bixby Memorial Free Library.

For more on how libraries can become more accessible to patrons with disabilities, see the collection of resources we assembled. And for more information about LTC, see our historical overview of this initiative.

Cover photo courtesy of Sarah Ostman. Cecil W. Robbins Library photo courtesy of Kristine Jones. Clifton M. Miller library photo courtesy of Andrea Boothby Rice.