Inclusive Design for Student Success: Creating Library Spaces That Reflect and Support All Students

In today’s rapidly shifting higher education landscape, libraries play a crucial role in fostering student success through inclusive and accessible design. While institutions may navigate changing policies around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), the commitment to ensuring equitable access to information and resources remains foundational to librarianship.

Many academic libraries, especially those serving diverse student populations, are rethinking how their digital and physical spaces can better reflect and support all students. By focusing on accessibility, representation, and usability, libraries can create welcoming environments without necessarily framing these efforts under DEI terminology.

Best Practices for Inclusive Library Design

Libraries seeking to ensure their spaces and services are representative of and accessible to all students can integrate the following best practices:

1. Choosing Representative Visuals
Rather than using generic stock images, libraries can incorporate photos that reflect the student body, ensuring that people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, abilities, and learning styles are represented. Featuring students of color, minority students, and diverse learners engaged in research, collaboration, and digital learning fosters a sense of belonging and community. For example, institutions can feature real students on their library portals, as seen in initiatives like Goldey-Beacom College’s library website, where images authentically represent the student body.

2. Ensuring Accessibility Through Alt Text and Design
Inclusive design means ensuring digital resources are accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. Libraries can conduct focus groups with low-vision students to understand how they navigate online resources. Implementing meaningful alt text for images, high-contrast color schemes, keyboard navigation options, and user-friendly layouts improves usability and accessibility. Compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) ensures these changes are framed as necessary improvements for all users rather than ideological choices.

3. Expanding Resources to Support Student Well-Being
As an emerging Hispanic-Serving Institution, our library recognized the importance of offering resources that reflect and support the needs of our student body. To promote wellness and provide relevant information, we added a Spanish-language health magazine to our collection. This resource ensures that Spanish-speaking students can access trusted health information in their preferred language, reinforcing the library’s role as a hub for learning and well-being.

4. Leveraging Institutional Identity
Libraries within institutions serving first-generation students, adult learners, or historically marginalized communities can align inclusive design efforts with their institution’s mission. Positioning updates as part of broader student success initiatives ensures these efforts are seen as natural extensions of the college’s commitment to serving its student population.

5. Prioritizing Data-Driven Decisions
Libraries can use user analytics and direct student feedback through focus groups to inform design choices. For example, heatmaps can reveal how students interact with digital content, while direct feedback from students using assistive technologies can identify barriers to accessibility. These insights help guide changes that enhance usability for all students, ensuring decisions are rooted in improving the user experience. Specifically, we asked some of our low-vision students if they could use the library's portal.

The Takeaway

Libraries have always been spaces for learning, exploration, and support. In an evolving higher education landscape, ensuring that every student—regardless of language, ability, or background—can see themselves reflected in library resources is essential to their academic success. By prioritizing accessibility, expanding collections to meet the needs of diverse student populations, and aligning initiatives with institutional missions, libraries can continue to create welcoming environments.

These efforts are not about checking a box or conforming to external labels; they are about upholding the fundamental values of librarianship—ensuring equitable access to information, fostering belonging, and empowering students to succeed. A truly inclusive library is one where all students can learn, engage, and thrive.