Downtown Library Improves Access

The disabled are getting better access to Spokane’s Main Library.

Workers for the Spokane Public Library are adding a handicapped parking space along Lincoln Street. Soon, they’ll lower the library’s outside book drop, so people in wheelchairs can reach it.

The improvements, which will cost about $9,300, are the results of an agreement between the library and the U.S. Department of Education.

The agency was investigating complaints that the $14 million library, which opened in 1994, does not meet requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Without the new space, the closest parking designated for disabled library customers is about a block from the library entrance. There are two spaces for handicapped employees near the library’s rear service entrance.

Investigators never determined that the building fell short of the parking requirements, said library Director Dan Walters.

“We designed the building before (the act) and nobody could tell us, ‘Do A, B and C.’ We took our best guesses,” he said.

“We agreed to do these changes to bring the whole matter to closure.”