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Accessibility

Penfield Library's recognizes and respects the diverse and evolving needs of our students, staff, and faculty. The library provides a number of services and resources to assist library users with disabilities.  

If you don't find what you're looking for on this page, or have questions or comments, please contact our library director, Sarah Weisman ([email protected]).

Accessibility of physical spaces

The following information is most relevant to those who use mobility aids such as wheelchairs.

Parking

If you have a campus parking permit and a handicapped parking permit, you can park in any campus lot, regardless of your role.

The lots closest to the library are:

  • Employee lot 31, which is between Penfield Library and Marano Campus Center
  • Employee lot 1, which is near the lake and across the street from Penfield Library and Lanigan Hall

If you are not a current student, faculty, or staff member, you can purchase a visitor's parking pass on the SUNY Oswego Parking website. 

Automatic doors

Penfield Library has two sets of automatic doors:

  • at the main entrance to the library on the front (south) side of the building
  • at the west entrance to the 24-Hour Room, facing Lanigan Hall
Elevator

Our elevator is located toward the back (north) side of the building, past the stairs. 

To check for campus elevator outages, please visit the Facilities Services page

Restrooms & drinking fountains

Accessible gender-inclusive restrooms are located:

  • on the first floor, between the EOP office and the women's restrooms

Accessible women's restrooms are located:

  • in the 24-Hour Room
  • on the second floor

Accessible men's restrooms are located:

  • in the 24-Hour Room
  • on the first floor, near the computer lab
  • in the basement of the library (toward the right when exiting the elevator)

A water bottle filling station is available in the 24-Hour Room space near the women's restroom. Wheelchair-accessible drinking fountains are available on the 1st floor of the library near the women's and men's restrooms. A second filling station is available near the men's restroom.

Study spaces

Most study spaces in open areas (on all floors of the library) are wheelchair accessible. 

There are 2 semi-enclosed group study areas on the first floor that are wheelchair accessible. These spaces are called IGLUs (Innovative Group Learning Units). They're located toward the back (on the lake side of the building). These spaces contain a table, several chairs, and a large screen TV. They also have whiteboards that are part of the wall paneling. 

We also have 2 study carrels which are wheelchair accessible; one is on the 2nd floor, while the other is on the 3rd floor. See our study carrels page for more information. 

Computers

All computers located on the first floor are wheelchair accessible. Two of these computer stations can be adjusted for height. All stations have access to screen reading and screen magnification software.

There are some computer stations intended primarily to provide access to the library catalog. These stations are height-adjustable. The library catalog can also be accessed from any Internet-connected device. 

Accessibility of library materials

Retrieving physical library materials

While many of our materials are easily accessible to those with mobility aids, there are some spaces that may present challenges. The third floor, which houses most of the library's books, has narrow aisles that cannot accommodate wheelchairs. (We are working on making those aisles more accessible, however.)

There are a few options for retrieving items from the collection:

  • If you need an item on the same day, please call or visit the Check-Out & Reserves Desk. 
  • You can also place a hold and have our staff retrieve the item or items for you. Items are usually ready for pick-up within 1-3 business days. 
Digital library materials

Most of the digital content that the library offers is provided through third-party vendors. We review products' accessibility features and challenges, and this factors into our decisions to purchase the product. 

If you find digital content that does not meet your needs - for example, a PDF that cannot be read by your screen reading software - please contact our Electronic Resources Librarian ([email protected]).

Audiovisual materials

The vast majority of our audiovisual materials have closed captioning available. This includes both our physical collections (DVDs & Blu-Rays) and our streaming video collections. 

Our streaming video collections may have additional features. For example, the database Academic Video Online provides closed captions for all titles, and transcripts and audio descriptions for most. 

Devices with magnification capabilities

The library has two flatbed scanners located on the first floor; these can be used to magnify physical materials like books or class notes.

We also have a microform machine, which has zooming functions. 

If you need assistance with either the scanners or the microform machine, you can inquire at the Research Help Desk (also on the first floor). 

Devices with text-to-audio capabilities

The library has two flatbed scanners located on the first floor. They have optical character recognition (OCR) technology, meaning they can "read" the text and convert it into a downloadable audio format. 

If you need assistance with a scanner, you can inquire at the Research Help Desk (also on the first floor).

If you have any other questions about library resources, please don't hesitate to reach out to our library director, Sarah Weisman ([email protected]).

Please visit the Office of Accessibility Resources website for information about other accommodations.

If you need help creating accessible content, please visit Oswego's Digital Accessibility website.