The libraries welcome students, staff and visitors with disabilities and Specific Learning Difficulties, such as dyslexia and dyspraxia. We encourage you to contact us if you need help in accessing our services, or if you have any questions or feedback.
Students do not need to disclose their disability to our staff in order to arrange enhanced services. Services for students with disabilities, dyslexia or dyspraxia are arranged through the University Disability Coordinator or Learning Support Coordinator (dyslexia or dyspraxia). Students are advised to contact one of them as soon as possible after arriving at the University, to discuss provision of these services, which the coordinators will then arrange with us.
Accessing library buildings
If you have a support worker who needs access to our libraries or if you would benefit from a tour of a particular library building, please contact us and we will arrange this for you.
Support is available at each of our libraries. In particular, the Main Library offers a range of specific services and facilities for users with disabilities.
A suite of assistive software is installed on all campus PCs. Mind-mapping and proof-reading software is available to all students, while other software (including screen-reading and magnification software) requires registration with the Student Disability Service.
Accessing print collections
Loans and renewals
If you borrow an item that's in high-demand and issued for two days, we might be able to extend the loan period if your disability prevents you from making use of the item in two days. This is decided on a case-by-case basis, depending on availability of the item, so please speak to staff.
Find out more about borrowing from our libraries.
Photocopying
If your disability means that you find it difficult to carry out self-service photocopying, we can do the copying on your behalf at the self-service cost. We can also provide coloured paper if you ask at the enquiries desk.
Find out more about printing, photocopying and scanning in the libraries.
Accessing online collections and websites
We purchase many resources which are available online, such as e-books, e-journals and databases. These can be found by searching FindIt@Bham. If a publisher produces information about how accessible their resource is, we will provide a link to it, alongside the licence conditions. Click on 'Show Licence' in the FindIt@Bham record to see this information.
Our website is part of the University of Birmingham intranet, and we also host some of our subject, skills and database guides on the LibGuides platform. There are statements for the intranet, LibGuides and FindIt@Bham which tell you about the accessibility of these websites and where you can get more help. We also provide accessibility statements for eTheses and eData, which are the university's repositories for electronic theses and research datasets.