Measuring the Accessibility of Public Library Home Pages

The home pages of Hennen's one hundred great American public libraries were evaluated for accessibility by people with disabilities. Library selection was based on HAPLR (Hennen's American Public Library Rating) Index Scores. Of the one hundred libraries, seventy-four maintained Web sites and fourteen of those Web sites were categorized as accessible by the Bobby online evaluation service. Libraries with larger service populations and those with lower HAPLR scores were more likely to have accessible Web sites. Guidelines and resources for creating and evaluating accessible Web pages are included.