Blind author Ved Mehta challenged the New York Public Library's position
that providing a reading room for the blind and their readers was not an
accommodation, but a carte blance imposition of his personal preferences.
This is a typical refrain by librarians who refuse accommodation requests.
they might refuse the reading room but they will then threaten, and
sometimes demand, arrest if one does not keep quiet in the library,
because ironically the reader is disturbing to others.  The public saw
through this sham and a reading room will be built and provided to the
blind.

kelly

New York Post (NY), January 12, 1999
Author makes 'lions' share library access with blind

Author: JILL ROSENFELD


Check the catalog in the New York Public Library and you'll find 22 books
by Ved Mehta - but until now, the world-renowned author hasn't been able to
research any of them there.

That's because Mehta is blind and must use an assistant to read to him -
something the lion-guarded institution on Fifth Avenue refused to permit.

Now - after a short but nasty public battle with the library - the genius
author has won his fight.

"I've had an absolutely terrible time doing research be- cause I couldn't
work there," said Mehta, who has won two Guggenheim fellowships and a
MacArthur grant.

"They must have 400 books on Gandhi, and I couldn't consult any of them
when I was writing my biography of him. How can they, as a public
institution, deny me the right to work there?"

Mehta had heard that the library was building 15 private rooms for
scholars, and called Paul LeClerc, the library's president, to see if he
could use one of them.

LeClerc refused the request on the grounds that the library does not
provide private offices for anyone.

"That's when I decided to make a public fuss," said Mehta. "I have never,
ever made an issue of my blindness, but enough is enough."

He contacted the press, and media attention began to focus on the library.

LeClerc came around yesterday, announcing that a separate room will be
built for blind people who use reading assistants.

It will be completed by the end of 1999.

"This is an institution that provides extraordinary services to people in
New York and to people across America," LeClerc said. "We will seek to
provide a reasonable accommodation to blind writers who need readers."

Caroline Oyama, the library's spokeswoman, added that the library has a
huge variety of programs for the blind.

Books from the central library can be transferred across the street to the
Mid Manhattan branch, where they are translated into Braille or read aloud
by a computer, she said.

"We also have the Library for the Blind, on 23rd Street, which mostly
serves users by mail," she said.

Copyright (c) 1999, 1997 New York Post