The Archival Setting and People with Disabilities: A Legal Analysis

Legal rules and regulations, with increasing regularity, determine how we operate our institutions. The Americans with Disabilities Act illustrates this point well. It has affected archives in several ways, and will continue to do so. The act influences archival employment practices and will assuredly influence the nature and quality of service made available to patrons with disabilities. This article explores, in general terms, the relevance of the Americans with Disabilities Act to the archival setting.