How Well Do Academic Library Web Sites Address the Needs of Database Users with Visual Disabilities?

Many libraries striving to provide accessible resources to people with visual disabilities stop at the door of the omnipresent database. Given the extent of database use today, the article questions whether we shortchange our visually impaired users if we do not examine the accessibility of these electronic resources and encourage database vendors to improve their products. Libraries have moved at varying speeds in servicing the needs of the visually impaired, both in providing helpful web site service pages and in providing the extra measure of reference assistance necessary for database access and use. This article examines a sampling of academic library web sites to determine how libraries might improve service and access for this specially challenged population.