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This article details the public policy framework that establishes the legal foundation for requiring access to Web‐based information resources for people with disabilities. Particular areas of focus include: the application of the fair use doctrine to an understanding of disability access to digital information; the application of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act to Web‐based services; and the application of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act to Federal Web‐based resources and the extent to which Section 508 may be applicable to states through linkage under the Assistive Technology Act.

Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D) is a national non‐profit organization that provides educational and professional books in accessible media formats to people with print disabilities. The principal aim of RFB&D’s TOP project is to experiment with using digital talking books (DTBs) in an educational setting, while focusing particular attention on the ability to provide DTBs over computer networks. The first in‐class testing cycle began with the Fall 1999 semester.

This special theme issue of Library Hi Tech includes eight articles on technology and its impact on persons with disabilities. These articles represent a cross‐section of current research and practice in the field of adaptive technology and librarianship. Susan Beck begins by identifying the architectural barriers facing the disabled library user. Next, Marilyn Graubart tackles a less obvious but equally insidious access challenge: the attitudinal barriers facing the patron or staff member with a disability. Staff sensitivity issues are addressed and concrete solutions to staff training are presented. Other articles deal with various aspects of adaptive technologies. Case studies point out potential pitfalls facing librarians who must decide what to buy and how to best use it. Many in the disabled community have feared that the graphical user interface would reverse progress made with the earlier, primarily text‐based (DOS) systems. Alistair D.N. Edwards' history of the GUI provides the necessary background information for the articles that deal with pragmatic solutions to the graphics problems, including the trend toward graphics‐based OPACs and World Wide Web sites. What role will Braille, large print, and audio books and magazines play in the future of libraries and disabilities? Most libraries still collect books, and the nation's two largest suppliers of alternative format texts, the National Library Service and Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D), are sure to maintain a central role. This special issue winds up with Steve Noble's overview of the new RFB&D Internet‐based online catalog, which enables patrons to gain direct access to this agency's many recorded and electronic text offerings.

Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (formerly Recording for the Blind) has been providing audio recordings of educational texts since its founding in 1948. RFB&D's master tape library currently contains over 80,000 volumes, making it the largest resource of its kind in the world. Beginning in 1992, RFB&D initiated a project to develop an online public access catalog that would allow both institutional providers and individual borrowers to search its holdings and order recorded texts via the Internet. Also in 1993, a coordinated pilot project was begun to allow a limited test group of institutional sites and individuals the ability to use the catalog‐ordering mechanism in an effort to gather structured feedback on the usefulness of the system and suggestions for improvements. Although the project cannot be considered an overwhelming success, much insight has been gained as a result of our efforts and will be of considerable value in the development of a future improved version of RFB&D's online public access catalog.

A few years ago, when the Americans with Disabilities Act was new and causing much concern among librarians and library administrators, it was difficult to find an issue of any major library science journal that did not address the legal issues surrounding access to library facilities and services. Librarians' interest in providing access to their services and collections is not new, but attention in the 1990s seems to have shifted away from what we can do toward what we must do for our user population with special needs.