The Australian Library Journal
volume 50 issue 2

The role of the internet for people with disabilities: issues of access and equity for public libraries

This article reports two studies, which, although separate, focus on related issues concerned with online access for people with disabilities in the context of information and library provision. The first project concerns the potentialities of online services for people who are blind and sight impaired and has a particular emphasis on information-seeking behaviour. The second project concerns online services for people with disabilities in Australian public libraries, and focuses on evaluation of adaptive equipment, associated training and strategies for improving access. Four research questions, relevant to one or both of the projects, are selected for discussion in the article: What are the information needs of people with disabilities, particularly people who are blind and sight impaired? What are the recreational interests of people with a diverse range of disabilities? What role can the internet play in meeting information needs and in serving recreational interests? How can public libraries assist people with disabilities to use the internet and thus address issues of access and equity for this group of people? The article reviews the literature in relation to the four questions, describes the interpretivist conceptual framework used for both studies, and outlines the research method used for each. The results of the two studies, relevant to each of the questions, is then presented. A major conclusion to the article is that the development of partnerships between public libraries and local disability groups is likely to result in significant benefits for people with disabilities.

Manuscript received November 2000

This is a refereed article

The Australian Bureau of Statistics' most recent Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (1998) estimated that 19.3 per cent of the Australian population or 3 610 300 persons had a disability which in some way affected or limited their activities. Disabilities come in many and varied guises, the main types being physical, intellectual, sight and hearing, or various combinations thereof. A literature search revealed very little information about the information needs, leisure interests, or internet use by people with disabilities, either in Australia or overseas. Given that Australian 'disability' statistics are likely to be of interest in other countries, the apparent lack of research on these issues seems to be an omission.

In 1999 (and continuing in 2000), Information and Telecommunications Needs Research (ITNR), a joint venture of Monash University, Victoria, and Charles Sturt University, NSW, undertook two research projects which are concerned with the potentialities of online services for people with disabilities. The smaller project focuses on people who are blind and sight impaired, specifically, and emphasises information needs for everyday life; the larger project includes participants with a wide range of disabilities and emphasises recreational interests. Both projects involve the role of online services, and issues of access and equity in relation to the internet. The larger project is specifically concerned with providing online services for people with disabilities in Australian public libraries.[1]

Both projects have resulted in rich data concerned with multiple aspects of information seeking, leisure interests, internet potentialities, and access and equity in public libraries. The key questions which are central to the article are:

• What are the information needs of people with disabilities, particularly people who are blind and sight impaired?
• What are the recreational interests of people with a diverse range of disabilities?
• What role can the internet play in meeting information needs and in serving recreational interests?
• How can public libraries assist people with disabilities to use the internet and thus address issues of access and equity for this group of people?

Below is a review of the literature, related to each of these questions. Then follows the method used for the two projects, the findings and conclusions.

Disability and information needs
There are many statements in the literature extolling the importance of information to people with disabilities. The following is typical; it is from an article about increasing access to, and use of, disability-related information.

Information/knowledge is power. The ability to obtain and use information about any subject gives a person the opportunity to choose a path from many alternatives instead of being limited to a few perhaps unwanted or unfeasible choices (Fullmer and Majumder 1991, p17).

Nevertheless, as mentioned above, there is little known about the broad spectrum of information needs for everyday life of people with disabilities. One Australian study by Roth (1991), focussed on the likely characteristics and needs of potential clients of information services, where disability was the defining criterion. She surmised that the information needs of individuals with disabilities are likely to include, but not be limited to: service information, the nature of handicapping conditions, environmental accessibility, civil rights, financial assistance and advice, research and statistics, and service delivery models. The emphasis of this research was on improving information provision by agencies.

Although Williamson's (1995) study was of 202 older people, many in the sample had disabilities, albeit sometimes minor. This study explored both information needs and the preference for sources of information in considerable depth with 202 participants. It found that the most important information topics were health and income and finance (needed by all respondents). The next most frequently needed topics were recreation, government, consumer and housing and accommodation (Williamson 1995, 1998). International studies of older people have produced similar results. Todd (1984) and Epstein (1980, p55, cited by Tinker, McCreadie, and Salvage 1993, p19) both found that health and finance headed the list of older respondents' most worrying problems. Tinker, McCreadie, and Salvage, (1993) found specific needs were for information about finance, health, housing, residential and nursing home care and how to pay for it, and for services from home.

Astbrink (1996), who explored consumer information needs of blind and sight impaired people in relation to products, services or public information from bodies such as telecommunications companies, banks and government departments, found clear preferences for formats and technological solutions. In terms of formats, it was found that:

People will have their favourite formats based on their personal circumstances such as eyesight, onset of vision impairment, living arrangements, age, level of literacy and nature of the material or information to be accessed (p5).

In terms of sources of information most used by people who are blind and sight impaired, it is once again necessary to go to the literature about the information-seeking behaviour of older people. Williamson (1995, 1998) found that family members were ranked first of twelve sources considered important for information for everyday life by the 202 participants in her study. 'Friends' were ranked third. Similar findings were made by British studies (Todd 1984; Tinker, McCreadie, and Salvage 1993): family members and friends were at the top, or near to the top of important sources. These findings reflect those for studies of the broader community, where interpersonal sources also emerge strongly (Chen and Hernon 1982; Warner, Murray, and Palmour 1973). Commonly in all studies, regardless of the age groups involved, interpersonal sources emerge ahead of media sources (particularly newspapers, television and radio), with institutional sources such as local councils and libraries less frequently used.

Disability and recreational interests
An extensive literature search revealed very few items about the recreational interests of people with disabilities. A knowledge of such interests is important where attempts are being made to encourage people with disabilities to use the internet. We found in our field work that recreational interests were most often nominated for the trials we conducted with the world wide web and people with disabilities. Most literature discovered in the search, focused on people with intellectual disabilities, in particular severe intellectual or multiple disabilities, for example, as a result of cerebral palsy. This is not surprising, given that the interests of people with severe intellectual disabilities are likely to be narrower and more restricted than those of the rest of the population. It is likely that the interests of other people with disabilities will vary in the same way as those of the population in general, albeit that a disability, for example, of sight, may limit the enjoyment of those interests.

Although there is an extensive literature about how to measure the interests, or activity preferences, of adults of varied ages with moderate to severe intellectual impairments, very little emerges about what the interests themselves might be. One guide may be the kinds of topics chosen by researchers to present to the participants who are part of their research. These include everyday topics such as food and household chores, but also some recreational interests. Examples of such research include Hawley, Iwata and Lindberg (1999), whose chosen activities included bikes, basketball, art, music, dancing and cards, and Reid, Everson and Green (1999).

Although the study by Clarke et al (1995) focussed on children, rather than adults, it is of interest particularly in its demonstration of the effect on motivation when interests are taken into account. Henry's (1991) study of 856 adolescents with three types of disability (psychiatric, learning and physical), as well as people without disabilities, is also useful. The study attempted to develop a measure of eighty different leisure interests, generated through open-ended interviews with ten appropriate respondents. A major finding was that many of the top ten favourite activities, for example, listening to music, going to movies, were common to all groups (p535). One notable difference was that basketball appeared in the top ten only for adolescents with learning disabilities. With regard to actual participation in activities, it was found that adolescents with learning difficulties indicated more participation than the other groups in physical activities, that is, basketball, bicycling and roller skating (p535).

At the other end of the spectrum, there are two studies which focus on older people. A small study, by Bigby (1992), of seven Victorians with an intellectual disability over the age of 60 found that only one had wide-ranging interests, but all of them enjoyed television. The second study (Benz and McAllister 1990) used a larger sample (100 participants), although not all of them were aged fifty-five plus. The most popular leisure activities were, in order of importance: read books/magazines, watch television, listen to radio/records; work on hobbies, craft, (including baking, playing an organ, singing in a church choir, making pottery); participate in sports activities (most especially bowling followed by basketball); visit with a friend or relative; play cards, games (for example, bingo and checkers); go for a walk or hike; attend a movie, sport venue, go shopping.

Henderson's (1991) study investigated leisure patterns of a sample of thirty-three adults, aged eighteen to forty-three, with an intellectual handicap. Of the 128 activities offered to respondents, the twenty most frequently cited, in order of importance were: watching television and videos; listening to records and tapes; window shopping; walking for pleasure; cooking/baking; visiting/entertaining friends; shopping; cinema/theatre; keeping/breeding animals; gardening; crochet/knitting; cards; craft work; dining out; picnic/barbeque; bowls; billiards/snooker/pool; cycling; reading; visiting parks, gardens, zoos (p92).

The role of the internet
There is considerable discussion in the literature about the fact that the internet and other online services are new technologies that open up windows of opportunity for everyone to participate in the new information age, and that there are particular benefits and potentialities for people with disabilities. The internet is predominantly seen in the literature as offering at least a partial solution to the barriers which have previously existed for many people with disabilities. This emphasis may reflect the broader goal of providing 'independent life' which the European Commission DGXIII (n.d., n.p.) described as when 'persons with a disability take control over their lives, access the same opportunities and face the same choices in every-day life that non-disabled persons take for granted.'

There is no doubt that the opportunities for communication, information acquisition, and the pursuit of leisure interests by people with disabilities are likely to be significantly expanded through online services, and that this is already happening. For people in rural Australia (or in rural areas of other countries), where distance often exacerbates the isolation associated with disability, there can be particular benefits (Wolstenholme and Stanzel 1997). The Royal National Institute for the Blind (1998, cited by Berry 1999) in the United Kingdom stated that 'the internet is one of the most significant developments since the invention of Braille... [because] for the first time ever many blind and partially sighted people have access to the same wealth of information as sighted people and on the same terms.' The inventor of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee stated that 'the power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential part' (http://www.w3.org/WAI/).

Along with the enthusiasm about the value of the internet for people with disabilities, there also seems to be a lot of hype. New technologies often seem to have ascribed to them power to undo social problems. For example, Harris (1997, cited by Blake 1998, p12) claimed that 'the internet has the power to change the lives of disabled people.' Seale (1998, p260) said that 'microcomputers have been heralded as the new saviours for disabled people because they are believed to have a corrective function, helping disabled people do what they previously could not'.

There are other writers who express caution about thinking of the internet as a virtual utopia. For example, Robins (1995, p153) commented that such a response ignores the social context from which the internet has emerged as a technology, and the context in which people participate as virtual dwellers, but also as flesh and bones computer operators. It ignores the lack of fit between technology and the needs of people with disabilities and the lack of resources to purchase computers, software packages, and adaptive equipment. As Stephanidis (1997, cited by Blake 1998, p12) pointed out, along with the opportunities offered by technological progress may come new barriers, human isolation and alienation unless the diverse requirements of all potential users are taken into consideration. Robins (1995, p153) said that we must 'de-mythologize virtual culture if we are to assess the serious implications it has for our personal and collective lives.'

The role of libraries in promoting access to the internet
Australian libraries have for many years been concerned with issues of access and equity for people with disabilities. ALIA's statement on Library services for people with disabilities dates back to 1979 and was last amended in 1996 (http://archive.alia.org.au/policies/). While there is always more to be done in terms of general access issues, the extension of policies to encourage access to the internet in libraries has now become very important. The more essential services and information move online, the greater are the chances of an increase in information poverty. This is particularly the case for groups such as people with disabilities for whom access to the internet is more difficult. With regard to this point, the United States Department of Commerce's (1999) report Falling through the net: defining the digital divide found that minorities, low-income persons, people with less education and children of single parent households, especially those living in rural areas, are less likely to have access to the internet and information resources. People with disabilities are always a part of a minority group, at least, and usually part of one or more of the other nominated groups as well. The report calls for public policies as well as industry initiatives to counter this problem. One of the solutions found was the use of 'community access centres' such as libraries and schools.

Libraries are often talked about as the possible solution to information poverty, as they are in a position to provide free access to the internet for their communities. As the Washington Assistive Technology Alliance (WATA), in the United States said: 'Accessible computer stations in public libraries and other public places considerably increase access to information for people with disabilities' (Amtmann and Cook 1999, np). In 1996 the Washington State Library received a grant to install accessible workstations for people with disabilities in twenty-two rural libraries in the State.

In many respects, the Washington project has similarities to the Australian public library project, reported in the present article. The former did not evaluate adaptive equipment to the same extent, but the general issues it raises are extremely pertinent. Mainstreaming disability services... (2000), a joint venture of State Library of Victoria and the Royal Victorian Institute of the Blind, also has similarities. This project aims to introduce adaptive technology and other resources using a pilot study of libraries, and places considerable emphasis on general access issues.

A key issue for libraries which want to make the internet accessible to people with disabilities is the provision of adaptive equipment. While there is no paucity of evaluations of equipment and software for specific disabilities, there has not been extensive evaluation of equipment suitable for busy public settings, where only limited support can be provided by staff. This is also the case in the United States where there are numerous sites on the internet which refer to American libraries using adaptive equipment to meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (Chalfen and Farb nd; Christierson et al 1998; Anderson 1992; Amtmann and Cook 1999)[2]. Since there appears to be a lack of discussion of the implementation process and few evaluative studies afterwards, the degree of success and the effectiveness or non-effectiveness of programs is often unknown. Nor are selection guidelines readily available.

Other issues for public libraries in promoting access to the internet are: the need for training of staff in disability awareness and the use and support of adaptive equipment and software; a public awareness campaign to make patrons with disabilities (and their carers) aware of the opportunities available; clear policies about how the adaptive equipment is to be used (for instance, who has the priority for using the workstations with adaptive equipment when they are used by both able bodied and disabled users, time limits when others are waiting, and how staff assistance, for example, for changing settings of the operating system and browsers, should be organised); and a plan for measuring outcomes of the accessibility (Amtmann and Cook 1999, np).

Method
The method used for both projects is in keeping with an ecological framework of concepts which emphasises the study of individuals within their personal and social contexts. There has recently been a movement in the social sciences towards research methods which emphasise contextualised understandings of human behaviour. This has resulted in interpretivist research becoming increasingly popular and, in particular, ethnographic and other naturalistic methods. Thus new avenues for exploring old and new topics have opened up. Interpretivist research is based upon the ideas that 'there is no unique 'real world' that pre-exists and is independent of human mental activity and human symbolic language' (Bruner 1986, p95; cited by Schwandt 1998). Knowledge and truth are therefore created rather than discovered, and there are often multiple, conflicting constructions of reality. Rather than attempting to ascertain general laws by which humans are said to exist, interpretivist researchers are more concerned with focusing on the 'processes by which meanings are created, negotiated, sustained, and modified within a specific human context' (p225). In the case of the projects which are the focus of this article, the human contexts varied. With the project on blindness and sight impairment, the personal lives of participants - their disabilities and living situations - were taken into account, as well as the broader social and economic contexts which affect their lives. In that about online services in Australian public libraries, personal abilities and needs were important, but so too was the public library setting in relation to those personal factors.

Project about blindness and sight impairment
Two techniques, focus groups and individual interviews, were used to explore the meanings and perceptions of the blind and sight impaired people who were involved in the study. Two focus groups were conducted, one of ten professionals who worked with people who are blind or vision impaired in urban Melbourne, and one of six rural professionals in NSW. Five participants in the focus groups were, themselves, legally blind. The focus groups were used to establish some of the issues which would be important to follow up in subsequent interviews with blind or vision impaired people. Individual interviews were undertaken with fifteen people who were legally blind, nine who lived in Melbourne and six who lived in rural NSW. This gives a total of thirty-one people whose views were sought. The focus groups and individual interviews concentrated broadly on understanding the main information and communication needs; barriers to the use of online services; and the potentialities of online services to assist the lives of people who are blind and sight impaired. Semi-structured interviews were used for both the focus groups and interviews. Focus groups lasted about ninety minutes and interviews between thirty to ninety minutes. The participants were located through organisations such as the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind (RVIB), Vision Australia, Royal Blind Society of NSW, National Federation of Blind Citizens of Australia.

Participants were diverse in their demographic characteristics. They ranged in age from twenty to eighty-one years old. Eleven of the fifteen individual interviewees were female, reflecting the fact that women tend to live longer and therefore are more susceptible to vision loss. Only seven of the interviewees were in paid employment, mostly reflecting the older age of most of the participants and partly the fact that there are major barriers to employment for people who are blind and vision impaired. Although ten of the fifteen interviewees owned, or had access to a computer, four of the computers were marginal for internet use. Generally those who had access to up-to-date computers used them through work or college, or had an income sufficient to buy them. Of the four participants over the age of sixty-five, only one could easily afford, and had access to, an up-to-date computer. Only six participants had access to the internet, although a further four were very interested in using it. Part-time incomes and pensions were the largest barrier to access to the internet for these four people.

Project about online access for people with disabilities in Australian public libraries
This project involved nine Australian public libraries and 102 participants, of whom all but seventeen were disabled. The people without disabilities were all public librarians, whose views on training of people with disabilities in the use of adaptive equipment and software were sought. Principally, the goal was to recruit ten people with varied disabilities in each of the nine library services, eight of which are in Victoria and one in Wagga Wagga, NSW. This was done through local disability organisations and the libraries themselves. About sixty-five per cent of the participants with disabilities were used to evaluate selected adaptive equipment and software; the remainder were used to develop methods of training for the recommended adaptive equipment and software, chosen during the trials.[3] Observation/interview schedules, adapted for each particular stage of the project, were used for all the participants with disabilities. While qualitative collection data techniques intended to capture the perspectives of the participants were used extensively, the study also used action research where this was appropriate, for example, in the testing of equipment with people with a great range of disabilities and in trialling appropriate training for the equipment to be recommended. Action research enables fieldwork to be adjusted so that the best possible solutions to problems can be obtained.

The third strand of this project, which concerns policies and strategies to improve access to online services in public libraries, was undertaken through discussion with librarians and disability groups, as the project proceeded.

Results
The results of the two projects are extensive. Only the findings relevant to the questions outlined earlier in this article are included here.

The information needs of people with people with disabilities
A major focus of the project about blindness and sight impairment was the needs for information by the participants. Understandings about the information needs of people with a wider range of disabilities have also been gleaned from the project about online access, but the data are in much less depth. We have used fictitious names for our interviewees to preserve their anonymity.

There are basically two kinds of people who make up the blind and vision impaired community: those who were born blind, and those who became blind. The majority of people who are blind or vision impaired are in the latter group, tend to be older people, and are therefore more likely to be women. These two groups have vastly different life experiences, with the former group often having been taught Braille in their earlier years and to lead independent lives. For those who have become blind in their older age, it is much more difficult. They have led a sighted existence for the main part of their lives, and have developed sighted ways of carrying out their daily life activities. When their sight goes, the adaptations they have to make are enormous. They commonly go through a grieving period before they begin to readjust. They have to relearn their independence. Of our individual interviewees, seven were born blind or with a serious sight disability, or became blind or seriously sight impaired at a young age. Eight had become blind later in life.

Not surprisingly, information about their disabilities and ways of coping with life activities, were key needs of participants who were blind and sight impaired. Otherwise, the every day life information needs of participants were very like those of other people in the community. As mentioned above, comparisons with research about the information needs of older people are particularly appropriate, given that disabilities are more prevalent amongst older people. For example, information about 'health' and 'income and finance' was found to be important to all participants in the study of blind and sight impaired people. Likewise, as mentioned above, a number of researchers (for example, Williamson 1995, 1998; Todd 1984; and Epstein, 1980, cited by Tinker, McCreadie, and Salvage 1993) have all found 'health' and 'income' to be top of the list of older respondents' list of important topics, regardless of whether or not they have a disability. 'Recreation', which included listening to talking books supplied by organisations for the blind and sight impaired, was also found to be very important. Other topics often mentioned were government information, including about elections, consumer affairs, travel (for trips and holidays), and employment. Legal information was needed less often, as was local transport information: not all people who are blind or sight impaired can use public transport.

The same key everyday life issues were also found to be important to participants with a range of disabilities who took part in the online services project. A major difference was in the kinds of recreational interests enjoyed by people with intellectual disabilities in comparison with people in other disability groups. This is discussed in detail below.

Meeting information needs
Everyone has a different set of strategies for finding the information they need for their daily living. This is also the case for people with disabilities. Life circumstances, such as living alone, having a family or living in supervised housing as were many of the people with intellectual disabilities in the online project all influence the ways in which people seek, or incidentally acquire information.[4] Other influential factors include whether people are working, unemployed, or retired; the type of disability involved; and individual information-seeking preferences. In the case of people with blindness or sight impairment, data from the project indicated that a very important contextual factor was whether or not those who were blind were living on their own. Participants who lived with someone, usually a spouse, received a great deal of support, including for information seeking. They still used other sources, but not as extensively as those in the former group, where participants depended a great deal on friends and relatives as well as organisations such as the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind (RVIB) and Vision Australia, banks, and local councils.

In the study of blindness and vision impairment, where sources of information used were explored in depth, family and friends were frequently identified as sources for most topics (health, income and finance, recreation, government, travel and consumer). As mentioned above the importance of family and friends as a source of information for every day life emerges strongly in the literature about older people (for example, Williamson 1995, 1998; Todd 1984; Tinker, McCreadie, and Salvage 1993). It also seems that community information seeking, in general, involves frequent use of family members and friends (for example, Chen and Hernon 1982; Warner, Murray, and Palmour 1973). Understandably, in the online project the people with intellectual disabilities, indicated that their families and carers were very important to them for everyday life matters.

For most of the sample in the blindness and sight impairment study, the societies and other bodies specifically for people who are blind and sight impaired, and doctors were very important for information about health and specific sight conditions.

The Royal Blind Society has been marvellous with all sorts of equipment you know, to help me out. So they've been terrific ... Training on little things I guess ... Learning to use the other senses that I've got...(Julie)

Radio emerged strongly as a source of information for participants in the study. As Edith said:

But now we do have our radio for the print handicapped (3RPH). And also you learn how to use the radio, whichever radio service is the best at giving you good up to date information and commentary.

Radio as a source of information also emerged as quite important in some of the studies of older people (for example, Williamson 1995, 1998; Nussbaum, Thompson and Robinson 1993). Although radio has the general disadvantage of requiring its listeners to wait for information to come to them, its role for people with sight impairments is clearly highly significant because of their problems with print.

Traditionally, access to printed material for someone who is blind or sight impaired has been mediated through others, such as a family member, a helper, or an organisation. Radio, audio cassettes and telephones have provided the main means by which people who are blind or vision impaired have accessed information. Braille is only commonly used amongst those who have been blind since young and is not the most common form of communication. Since funding is limited in blind and vision impaired organisations, only a small per centage of the printed information in the world is available on audio tape, radio, over the telephone or in braille. The information may often be out-of-date by the time it is made available and is expensive to convert into more accessible formats. Whilst blind and visually impaired students and those who are employed can get printed materials converted to audio for free, others usually cannot afford this. A number of participants who were braille users, talked about the problems of print:

By the time a news bulletin is brailled, it's yesterday's news, it's old news. We are pretty well served in (brailled) magazine articles, but it is the immediate news and commentary that we tend to miss out on. (Elspeth)

The problems of print were especially seen in relation to government information. The role of the organisations for the blind were appreciated for the assistance they give in disseminating printed government information in other formats:

Government and welfare bodies etc. are not the best people at disseminating information ... very rarely do they issue out information ... but fortunately now our two major organisations for the blind are brailling or taping major information sheets, such as health and government benefits information. Safety matters, too, such as information from the fire services, and ambulance services. (Edith)

With regard to election information, Edith saw a great improvement in recent times:

...these days, before an election, we are given a tape recording of the policies of the various parties and the candidates...

The access to print offered by the internet was noted as a significant step forward for people who are blind or seriously sight impaired. A number of our participants were using the internet with the aid of screen reading software. The role of the internet in information provision is discussed further, below.

The recreational interests of people with disabilities
The recreational interests of people with disabilities were explored in some depth in the online services project. Participants were asked about what they enjoyed doing as hobbies or for recreation. We started with an open question during the interview, to try to elicit the interests that immediately sprang to the minds of participants. We then used systematic prompts to ensure that interests were not over-looked. Table 1 presents the interests which were most often nominated.

Table 1
Recreational interests of participants

As can be seen the top recreational interest for the sample of eighty-five people with disabilities was watching television. Although 'football' was ranked second, 'reading' was also a strong contender. Some participants nominated specific reading interests, such as 'reading history' or 'reading biography' which, if added to the general reading category, would boost the numbers beyond those for the 'football' category. Other popular interests were dogs, travel, movies, gardening, sports in general, and news and current affairs. Given that some people nominated animals, in general, rather than specific animals, the figures in the 'dogs' and 'cats' categories are probably under-stated. Other categories which are likely to be under-stated are 'craft' and 'music'. In the case of the former, a number of participants nominated specific crafts: embroidery, knitting, patchwork, sewing, rather than craft, in general. With the latter, participants often nominated specific types of music, such as 'pop music' or 'classical music', rather than music in general.

Very importantly, differences were revealed when data were cross-tabulated. In particular, the interests of people with intellectual disabilities differed significantly from those of people who had other types of disabilities. Topics where we found strong differences were 'reading' and 'television'. People with intellectual disabilities were significantly less likely than people with other disabilities to state that 'reading' was one of their interests: 8.1 per cent of the former group, compared with 45.8 per cent of the latter group. *

Conversely, 56.8 per cent of people with intellectual disabilities said that television was one of their favourite activities, compared with 31.3 per cent of the latter group.* In the limited literature about the recreational interests of people with disabilities, the interest in watching television emerges strongly for people with intellectual disabilities. As outlined above, 'watching television' emerged near the top of the lists of favourite activities in the studies by Bigby (1992), Benz and McAllister (1990), and Henderson (1991).

While more people with intellectual disabilities expressed an interest in sport in general, than those with other disabilities, this was not significant. However, a particularly strong difference emerged with regard to 'football', which was an interest of 54.1 per cent of people with intellectual disabilities, compared with 14.6 per cent of people with other disabilities.** We found a positive response to football websites, especially from younger people with intellectual disabilities. As supported by the literature (Henry 1991; Benz and McAllister 1990), netball or basketball was significantly more likely to be favoured by people with disabilities (18.9 per cent, compared with 4.2 per cent of people with other disabilities).*

Another topic where differences emerged in the present study was 'animals' in which 27 per cent of those with intellectual disabilities were interested, compared with 8.3 per cent of those with other disabilities.* There was a trend for people with intellectual disabilities to be more interested than people with other disabilities in specific animals such as dogs and cats, but these results were not statistically significant. One participant, with a severe intellectual disability, was fascinated by tigers and was very excited by the pictures of 'tigers' we were able to find for her on the internet. She was unable to read, but learnt to identify the word 'tiger' during the time she spent with the researchers. There is some confirmation in the sparse literature of this interest in animals by people with intellectual disabilities. Henderson's (1991) study found that keeping/breeding animals was one of the top twenty most popular activities (out of the 128 activities offered to their sample of people with disabilities).

Although the literature leads to the expectation that movies and music will be popular with people with intellectual disabilities, differences from people with other disabilities were not significant. This was also the case with motor cars and computers. News and current affairs, travel*, craft*, and gardening ** were all more likely to be the choices of people with disabilities other than intellectual ones, most of them statistically significantly so.

The role of the internet in meeting information and recreational needs

Oh I think it [the internet] is tremendously important. It gives people quite a bit more independence and I find most people very, very enthusiastic once they've got over the initial hurdle of how to use it. (Worker with blind and sight impaired people)

There was a sense of excitement amongst the participants in the blind and sight impaired study about being able to participate in the new virtual landscape which the internet provides. Interviewees referred to a number of different information topics which they were finding on the internet. Government, health, disability services, travel, consumer, and particular topics connected with work and study were all mentioned. Kylie and Martha both said that they often look up federal and state government web sites, although the former was critical about the poor design of some sites: 'I spent a whole afternoon trying to find out the information. I did get it in the end, only because someone knew the address'. Kylie also used the internet extensively to pursue consumer information and compare products and prices.

Not only does access to the internet increase access to information for people who are blind or have vision impairments, but it also allows them to participate in a new information and communication format which has the potential to become a primary source for all people. In this way, people who are blind or vision impaired will not see themselves differently from the rest of the population:

I think the [internet would play the] same role that it plays in the lives of everyone else. You know, for finding information, for research, for talking to other people, for keeping up-to-date with things. For me, it would be also mean being able to contact lecturers, and having an e-mail address so it wouldn't matter where I was someone could contact me

It was also clear that the internet has a big part to play in serving recreational interests. Mostly it was recreational topics for which our participants wanted to search on the World Wide Web during the trials for the online services project in public libraries. The interest of participants was almost always fully engaged during these trials. The researchers noted that literacy could be improved for those with intellectual disabilities if suitable websites, targeted to their recreational interests, were available.

How libraries can assist
The online services project undertook extensive evaluation of adaptive equipment and software and is making recommendations based particularly on the criteria of suitability, both for a range of people with disabilities and busy public contexts where time to provide support is often quite minimal. Training in the use of adaptive equipment and software, both for librarians and for people with disabilities, has also been extensively addressed. Guidelines for the setting up of flexible work stations for people with disabilities have been developed.[5] The State Library of Victoria, in conjunction with MultiMedia Victoria, is providing funds for recommended adaptive equipment and software to be placed in the public libraries of Victoria which took part in the project. The roll-out of this equipment, through Libraries Online, VICNET, is taking place at the time of the writing. Equipment and software which are recommended include: Intellikeys, a large keyboard which comes with a selection of overlays suited to different types and levels of disabilities; Enhancing internet Access (EIA) which consists of a touch screen and a simplified web browser; a good quality trackball; and the Opera browser (http://www.opera.com) which has a number of features well suited for use by those with vision impairments and also, since no functions are exclusively dependent upon a mouse, some people who need or want to avoid the use of a mouse or trackball.

While the provision of equipment and software suited to a range of disabilities in public libraries, and the consideration of related training are crucial in opening up online services for people with disabilities in public libraries, further steps are also necessary. Libraries must publicise their services to people with disabilities in their local community. The online services project found that local disability organisations were the best sources of participants for the project. Local workers with people with disabilities from day centres, such as Bayley House Adult Training Support Service and Sheltered Workshop, or staff and volunteers from the Arthritis Foundation of Victoria, frequently responded well to suggestions that they could work as volunteer internet trainers in public libraries. Train-the-trainer programs, using such volunteers, would not only assist library staff, but the volunteers would also act as a conduit in terms of publicity for the library's services.

In terms of general awareness issues for public librarians, RVIB has, after community consultation, developed a Disability Awareness Kit (1998) for public librarians to use as a training package to assist staff in dealing with people with disabilities. The kit discusses general disability issues, print disability and vision impairment, hearing impairment, physical disability and intellectual disability. It focuses on information relevant to public librarians such as interpersonal interaction, development of relevant collections and issues relating to accessing facilities and collections.

If online access is to be promoted for people with disabilities, attention needs to be paid to wider accessibility issues in libraries. For example, it is pointless to provide suitable adaptive equipment and training for people with disabilities if there is insufficient space around computers to enable easy wheel chair access. Computer desks need to be adjustable to accommodate wheel chairs of various sizes. This is a fundamental requirement. In terms of sight impairments, lighting is crucial. Computers should not be places where there is excess light and where glare is a problem. In terms of the many general accessibility issues, standards related to all aspects of disability services in public libraries are available in the Mainstreaming Disability Services... (2000) report, which is highly recommended.

Conclusion
This article describes two recent projects which were concerned with exploring information needs and recreational interests in relation to improving online access for people with disabilities, generally, as well as in public libraries. Access and equity principles underpin both projects. Given the long-time awareness of general access and equity principles for people with disabilities in Australian public libraries, the intention of the article is to extend understandings of the opportunities now becoming available in the information age.

There will be limitations to the assistance libraries can give to some people with disabilities so that they can gain access to the internet. For example, we are still unsure whether we can recommend screen reading software for people who are blind or seriously sight impaired. We believe that most screen readers such as JAWS are difficult to offer in a public setting unless there is support from community organisations for the blind. This is because librarians are hard-pressed and may not have the time to teach or help people with complicated software programs. However, with community support from an organisation such as RVIB, it is likely that those who are blind or who have serious sight impairments can have access to the internet in Victorian public libraries. We consider that one of the key strategies for improving access to the internet in public libraries for people with disabilities is for librarians to seek the support of community groups. The development of partnerships with local disability groups, particularly to assist with internet training, is likely to result in significant benefits. That public libraries should seek to develop such relationships is one of the major recommendations emanating from our two years of research concerned with online services for people with disabilities.

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2 Some of the literature concerned with the evaluation of adaptive equipment for people with disabilities is reviewed in an extensive literature review which was undertaken for the project, 'Online services for people with disabilities in Australian public libraries'. The review also contains much more detail about other issues covered in this article, including the role of libraries. It is available on the ITNR web site http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/itnr/.

3 The sample for this project has been reported in detail in: Williamson, Kirsty et al. 'Levelling the playing field: The role of libraries in providing online services for people with disabilities'. Paper to be presented at ALIA 2000, Capitalising on Knowledge: The Information Profession in the 21st Century, the 6th Biennial Conference of ALIA, to be held at the National Convention Centre, Canberra, 24-26 October. See the conference web site at http://archive.alia.org.au/conferences/alia2000/.

4 The role of incidental information acquisition in the lives of older people is discussed by Williamson (1995, 1998).

5 The present article does not deal with recommended adaptive equipment and software, training in its use, and the guidelines for setting up a flexible work stations in depth. There are papers, or references to papers, on the ITNR web site (http:home.vicnet.net.au/~itnrn/) which discuss these aspects in detail. 'Training' is a particular focus of the ALIA2000 conference paper, mentioned above. A video outlining the method used for the project and illustrating some suitable adaptive equipment is available from Information and Telecommunications Needs Research at Monash University. Phone 03 9903 2322 or e-mail itnr@sims.monash.edu.au.nospam (please remove '.nospam' from address)).

A comment on statistical values
* Chi-square tests revealed that these results are statistically significant at the 0.05 level. Since the sample was not randomly selected, it should be noted that all results apply to this sample only.

** These results are statistically significant at the 0.01 level.