Recognition of the need for guidelines for library standards for people with disabilities was first given in 1981 at the Second National Seminar on Library Services for the Handicapped in Canberra. The Working Group established at this seminar noted the importance of guidelines for the profession, the administration and financial authorities, and for the general public.
Standards convey the essential nature of tasks through succinct statements of objectives.
Standards can also provide benchmarks by which librarians, administrators or users can measure performance, and they can place quantitative values on what needs to be provided or achieved. At a legislative level, the Disability Services Act 1986 emphasised the principle of normalisation and integration of people with disabilities into mainstream community life. Objective 3 Service should be provided as part of local co-ordinated service systems and be integrated with services generally available to the community, wherever possible. Objective 7 Programs and services should be designed and administered so as to promote the participation of people with disabilities in the life of the local community through maximum physical and social integration into that community. The Disability Discrimination Act of 1992 and the Equal Opportunity Act of 1995 further underlined these principles.