  Accretion disk models still do not provide a satisfactory explanation of the
optical/ultraviolet continuum observed in Seyferts and quasars. Substantial
theoretical progress has been made in understanding one aspect of the problem:
the dearth of spectral features at the Lyman limit. Promising solutions have
also been proposed to explain the surprising observations of large polarization
in the Lyman continuum observed in some sources. I review the recent progress
in this field, and try to point out future research directions which would be
fruitful in trying to obtain a complete, self-consistent model of the continuum
emitting regions.
