Library Journal discusses ongoing digital discrimination

From The Library Journal:

In recent years, the Internet has become a digital commons of commerce and education. However, accessibility standards have often been overlooked online, and the digital equivalents to curb-cuts and other physical accommodations have only rarely been implemented to serve those with print disabilities. (A print disability can be a learning disability, a visual impairment, or a physical disability. Individuals diagnosed with a print disability cannot access print in the standard way).

Most librarians are aware of disability legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). But while this piece of legislation, a civil rights law, has gone far to prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities, the extent of web use today had not yet been considered when the ADA was enacted nearly 20 years ago. As such, the ADA does not specifically address the increasingly important sphere of information technology. The ADA requires that places of public accommodation and the services they provide be accessible, but there's no specific reference to the Internet as a place of public accommodation and service for individuals with disabilities. This is where Section 508 of the U.S. Code comes in, and a recent study of how well libraries adhere to the standards it sets shows that they are not yet fully in compliance

Researchers David Comeaux and Alex Schmetzke of the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point report that only 47 percent of library and information science (LIS) schools and 60 percent of their libraries were fully accessible in terms of W3C web accessibility guidelines.