Academic libraries are under federal legal obligation to ensure their facilities, services and resources are accessible to individuals with disabilities.
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504 and Section 508 of the amendments of 1998.
The American Disabilities Act (1990) and it's subsequent amendments in 2008.
The Assistive Technology Act of 2004, a reauthorization of the 1998 Act.
Once legislation is established, regulations from government agencies led to accessibility standards and concerns about applications of the law in libraries, K-12 schools, and higher education.
The 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, from the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division.
The June 2010 Electronic Book Reader Dear Colleague Letter from the DOJ and the DOE Civil Rights Divisions. This letter followed legal action by the National Federation for the Blind against non-accessible Kindles being used in colleges and universities.
Guidelines and tools from leading global organizations have also assisted accessibility efforts.
The Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) presented the 2008 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 as a guideline on web accessibility and has offered evaluative tools, such as the Web Accessibility Evaluation (WAVE) tool to assist organization in checking library created pages for W3C and 508 compliance.
The National Library Service, throughout a network of cooperating regional and subregional libraries located throughout the United States and its territories and to American citizens abroad, provides over 200,000 books and magazines in audio, braille, and e-braille.