Health Sciences Library Accessibility
The Health Sciences Library is committed to providing services and assistance to all members of the UMKC community. Unique resources are also available at the Miller Nichols Library.
Book Retrieval
The stacks in most areas of the Health Sciences Library are not wheelchair accessible. Library personnel can retrieve materials upon request. If requesting many items, advanced notice is preferred.
Assistance in Obtaining Your Borrowed Materials
A Proxy Account will allow you to grant any other person temporary access to your library account on your behalf:
- Contact Student Accessibility Services and Support at (816) 235-5612 to establish an accommodation plan.
- Complete the Proxy Borrowing Form to establish your Proxy Account.
Scanning & Printing
Library personnel will assist people with disabilities in scanning materials from the Library’s collections or releasing print jobs sent to the printers.
Can the library create accessible documents?
No, library staff does not provide a service to create accessible documents, but library users can do so using library technology. Users can scan documents using one of the public scanners at Health Sciences Library or Miller Nichols Library. Choose to save the file as a “searchable PDF.” This will save the PDF with OCR (Optical Character Recognition), making the text accessible to screen reader technology.
You can also apply OCR to an existing PDF with Adobe Acrobat Pro. After making the text machine readable, you should also apply other accessibility elements like tags, alt text for images, and headings to your document. For more detailed instructions, consult this Creating Accessible PDFs guide.
UMKC users have free access to Adobe Creative Cloud (which includes Acrobat Pro) in designated campus computer labs, free online access with Remote Labs (for staff and faculty), and the option to purchase discounted licenses. UMKC Information Services provides details for all of these Adobe access options.
Contact Information Services with questions about Adobe Acrobat Pro.
Study Areas
Study tables, carrels, and other accessible spaces are also available throughout the Health Sciences Library, including a study room that can be reserved for use by 5-8 people comfortably.
An adaptive technology workstation is available in the Health Sciences Building Computer Lab, located in room 3304. It includes a height adjustable table and the following software:
- JAWS screen reader
- ZoomText screen magnifier
Contacts
First Floor Service Desk
For appointments and general information
- (816) 235-1880
Student Accessibility Services and Support
- (816) 235-5612
Building Accessibility

- Accessible parking is available east of the building.
- The north entrance, west entrance and south entrance are equipped with power-operated doors and access ramps.
- Three elevators are located at the opposite wall of the main south entrance.
- Accessible restrooms are located on the first and second floors. They are equipped with a low energy power-operated door and an accessible toilet stall.
- Emergency stairwell is located on the east side of the building. Please follow staff instructions in case of an emergency evacuation. Assistance is available for evacuation, if needed.