Condition and Problems of Library Services Access among Disabled Students at Academic Libraries in Bangkok and Vicinities

Abstract

This research aimed to study the condition and problems of library services access among disabled students at academic libraries in Bangkok and vicinities by using qualitative research methods. The thirteen key informants included nine librarians and practitioners about disabled students and four disabled students have visual impairments and students with disabilities with physical or mobility impairments. The research instruments were a semi-structured interview. The research results were found that conditions of access to library services for disabled students at academic libraries in Bangkok and vicinities is four aspects 1) Building aspects such as providing furniture suitable for the physically handicapped person, using color that takes into account the perception of people with low vision and the design of service areas to facilitate the visually impaired and physically disabled. 2) Library services provide specific services for disabled students such as book borrowing services, book delivery service and answer questions and help research. 3) Information resources, the library provides specialized information resources for students with visual impairments including braille and audio. 4) Assistive technology, libraries provide assistive technologies both hardware and software to assist students with visual disabilities and accessibility of libraries and students with disabilities with physical or motor disabilities including text-to-speech synthesis, audio editing technology, screen magnifier technology, screen readers for disabled students. And the problems of accessing library services found is four aspects too.