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The Equality Act 2010 is a UK legal framework designed to ensure that, as far as possible, people have equal opportunities. The Act brings together a number of previous pieces of legislation. There are specific sections on 'Adjustments for disabled persons', 'Services and Public Functions' and 'Further and higher education'.
Our duties: The Equality Act (2010)
The Equality Act places a duty upon Higher Education Institutions to make reasonable adjustments for staff, students and service users in relation to:
Education providers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments to ensure disabled people do not face ‘substantial disadvantage.’
The duty is anticipatory.
Equality Act 10.25: The duties in relation to the provision of education and access to a benefit, facility or service cover all of the services, facilities and benefits, both educational and non-educational, that an institution provides or offers to students. This includes:
[Source: Equality Act 2010, Technical Guidance on Further and Higher Education]
Our duties: The UN Convention on the rights of disabled people
The Convention stresses that persons with disabilities should be able to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life. To this end, States Parties should take appropriate measures to ensure that persons with disabilities have access, to the physical environment, to transportation, and to information and communications technology.
This is a mandatory code for all departments and colleges in the provision of equitable access to teaching, learning and assessment for disabled students. It contains several requirements and recommendations that faculties, departments and colleges must engage with. There is an explicit section on libraries but the whole document contains important information, particularly for staff who teach or work in a student-facing role.
Read the current version of the Code of Practice: Access and Inclusion for Disabled Students
The Libraries Accessibility Service currently has its own policies on Copyright and Data Storage as well as a Service Level Agreement for its Alternate Formats Service. LAS also contributes to two wider institutional policies: Cambridge University Libraries Policy on the Purchase of Accessible ebooks and the Audiobooks Collection Development Policy.
Read LAS policies on the Cambridge libraries: accessibility and disability LibGuide
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) began to apply from June 2025, requiring digital products and services sold into the EU to be accessible.
It is particularly relevant to ebooks and covers the ebooks themselves, e-reading solutions and all points in the ebook distribution chain.
The guidelines below have been developed by IFLA, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. The more theoretical aspects are important in terms of providing the justification for action and the implementation of accessible and inclusive library services. IFLA also provide practical advice on accessibility in libraries.
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