Creating Inclusive Library Environments

A Planning Guide for Serving Patrons with Disabilities

Michelle Kowalsky, John Woodruff

• Publisher: ALA Editions
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780838914854
• eBook ISBN:
  9780838914885
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

CHAPTER 1

Introduction to Creating Inclusive Libraries

Effective educators, librarians, and many other advocates help to create inclusive environments on a daily basis. We hope this book will help you continue to learn new ways to reach and teach others.

Sometimes those we teach are in elementary, middle, and high schools. At other times, we work with young adults in college, or adults who may be raising families and participating in the workforce, or retirees in our local communities. A great many more users will defy these traditional categories, in as many ways as there are individuals. Yet as we meet all of these unique and valuable people, we naturally come to realize that all share the same needs—to understand and to be understood.

Libraries can connect people with mentors, role models, and new ideas that fuel their growth. Many times, library staff members can take on leadership roles in addressing issues of disability within their communities. Since information resources help us to develop as humans in complex relationships, as well as to appreciate the development of others, libraries easily become a source of lifelong learning for everyone.

For Your Information

We can all identify a mentor who helped us understand or learn something new about the world or about ourselves. These dedicated educators helped us navigate the world by

• Modeling appropriate behavior, and correcting us when necessary.

• Sharing information, advice, or perspective to help us see new things.

• Remaining unwavering in their encouragement of our growth.

For Your Information

As we take what we have learned from mentors and apply it to our own lives, we are able to help others by

• Participating in our communities, organizations, and institutions, in order to ensure that educational opportunities exist for everyone.

• Teaching, administering, counseling, and supporting our users within various institutions, from our local universities to our global multinational companies.

• Remaining unwavering in our commitment to improving our society.

By engaging with an individual and establishing rapport, a mentor is able to evaluate the level of need, to establish a frame of reference for the relationship, and to provide resources for further learning. Library staff members therefore become natural educators and mentors who are able to meet and greet users, to determine their level of interest and skill, and to help them decide where to start navigating the library or refining their information needs. These mentoring skills are invaluable in creating relationships with all types of patrons, and in sustaining these relationships over time.

Librarians and users alike share a certain kinship within the library environment. Whether helping or being helped, library users report that these relationships usually result in a positive library experience when each user’s needs are met. Libraries that encourage the development of these human and information resources are indeed leaders in creating welcoming environments for further education and gainful employment, the cornerstones of self-sufficiency and independence that we all have come to expect as members of a democratic society.

This book is in honor of all of you who shared your expertise with us through your excellent library service, your presentation and teaching, or your writing. Please continue to share so that we all may continue to learn.

The Americans with Disabilities Act at Twenty-Five

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines a disability as a mental or physical condition that causes a substantial limitation. This definition is significantly restricted as to the condition, manner, or duration when compared to the condition, manner, or duration under which the average person in the general population can perform any major life activity.

It has been more than twenty-five years since the ADA became law in 1990. With the passage of the ADA, significant progress was made in the physical accessibility of buildings and all public places such as restaurants and libraries. Libraries became accessible in many more ways, from parking spaces to sidewalks, curb cuts, ramps, and automatic doors leading into the buildings. It is also more common for indoor furnishings and facilities to comply. Library desks, tables, and bathrooms are made to be fully accessible to accommodate persons with physical disabilities. Most elevators and doors have Braille signage for those with visual impairments. And online access to library holdings, as well as software and hardware that help to achieve this, have been evolving ever since.

Years before the ADA was signed in to law, many champions of the disability-rights movement laid the groundwork for improving access for persons with disabilities. Remembering their courage, sacrifices, and determination helps us to create and maintain a world in which today’s heroes encourage everyday acts of tolerance, acceptance, and kindness.

The ADAAA of 2008

Eighteen years after the ADA went into effect, the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA) was signed into law in 2008. The catalyst for the new legislation was the need to get closer to the original intent of the law. The ADAAA made important changes to the definition of the term “disability” by rejecting the claims in several Supreme Court decisions and clarifying portions of the previous ADA regulations of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

For Your Information

So who is considered to be an individual with a disability under the ADA? A person who

• Has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of his or her major life activities.

• Has a record of such an impairment.

• Is regarded as having such an impairment.

These changes made it easier for individuals seeking protection under the ADA to qualify as eligible for accommodations due to a disability within the definition provided by the ADA. EEOC’s “Fact Sheet of Final Regulations Implementing the ADAAA” was published in the Federal Register in 2011, and now appears online at www.eeoc.gov/​laws/​regulations/​adaaa_fact_sheet.cfm. It has become the go-to document for explaining these changes.

Furthermore, the ADAAA emphasizes that the definition of disability should be construed in favor of broad coverage of individuals to the maximum extent permitted by the terms of the ADA, and generally should not require extensive analysis. One of the significant changes that resulted from the ADAAA is that it left open the interpretation of who would qualify as having a “disability.”

For example, an individual with a history of cancer who is currently in remission would be covered under the new regulations. Another key change made it easier for individuals to establish coverage under ADAAA specifically within the “regarded as” part of the definition of “disability.” These changes also affected who might qualify as eligible for reasonable accommodations on the job or in places of public accommodation.

Overview of Barrier-Free Strategies

When an environment like a library, a classroom, or a retail shop is said to be barrier-free, it is easily negotiated by everyone, including those who have disabilities. In other words, no special actions on the part of the person with a disability are needed in order to use, experience, or engage in any aspect of that environment. Specifically, when nothing in particular keeps any person from accessing a resource, service, or place, those places can be described as “barrier-free” or by similar terms like “accessible” or “universally designed.”

Accessibility relates to minimizing the differences between persons with and without disabilities who engage with the library environment. Library buildings should be showcases of accessible public spaces via careful design and upgrade of their structure and interiors. Many libraries have updated furniture, equipment, and entryways in recent years, and there are many exciting examples of reimagined and newly designed spaces in libraries, schools, and other places. A great number of libraries have already implemented book shelving that is wide enough to accommodate electric wheelchairs, or have redesigned service desks so that their surfaces are now more comfortable for patrons who must remain seated. While these major improvements are often visible to even the most casual library users, examining the subtler aspects of your library facility may also reveal new opportunities and strategies for upgrades. For example, additional adjustments to the physical environment of the library might include more sensitive controls for lighting, noise, or air flow. Mechanical room-darkening shades may not only help an audience see a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation more clearly, but may also help to influence the behavior of children with disabilities during story times.

Checklist

Start the conversation about accommodating disabilities in your library:

□ Determine your organization’s background knowledge of abilities and disabilities.

□ Identify a plan for facilities that includes new and existing functions.

□ Review policies and procedures that identify relevant actions and activities.

Classical music, played through strategically located speakers, which can be directed to or removed from a particular area of the library, might create a relaxing atmosphere and simultaneously help to soothe the nerves of restless teenagers. Specific facility improvements and options are explored further in chapter 3, Setting Up Facilities.

Policies and procedures are essential in creating a barrier-free library environment, and they must cover many types of situations. On college campuses, for example, students with service animals are required to register with the office of disability resources. Usually, service animals are permitted in such places such as the college residence halls, the cafeteria, classrooms, and of course the library. However, some users may bring animals that do not qualify as service animals into a public, school, or special library, so policies must be in place to help govern these actions. In addition, users are also not required to register their animals in advance of entering any other place of public accommodation, further complicating staff decision making about the best courses of action. Therefore, the many details of library policies must be discussed and put into place to govern the behavior of library users as well as that of library staff, which is the focus of chapter 2, Writing Policies and Procedures.

For Your Information

The US Department of Labor reminds us that, when communicating with people who have disabilities, we should

• Relax.

• Treat the individual with dignity, respect, and courtesy.

• Listen to the individual.

• Offer assistance, but do not insist or be offended if your offer is not accepted.

By conducting your own research in library sources, and considering your experiences and those of knowledgeable colleagues or experts, you will be able to begin thinking about developing materials that help others to learn about accessibility. For example, the staff of the Disability Resources Center at Rowan University created fact sheets to distribute to our employees that describe the most common physical and invisible disabilities among our particular community of users, which currently include auditory processing disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders, traumatic brain injuries, and hearing and visual impairments.

Fact sheets like these can be created by your own organization and customized for your particular needs. They may be used as resources for training and disability-awareness sessions, along with other training materials for new employees or for refresher sessions for returning employees. Links to organizations and videos for further information can also be provided to serve as companion resources for teachers and support staff. These disability fact sheets can be invaluable in heightening awareness of specific disabilities and best practices to support and understand individuals in the classroom and to provide full access to their educational experiences. Information on these and other types of strategies for service improvements are addressed in chapter 4, Training Library Staff.

Sometimes library staff may not always know what type of help a library user might want, and must also realize that sometimes users explicitly don’t want help. For example, an elderly person staring at the large-print fiction shelf for a long time might unw...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1. Introduction to Creating Inclusive Libraries
• Chapter 2. Writing Policies and Procedures
• Chapter 3. Setting Up Facilities
• Chapter 4. Training Library Staff
• Chapter 5. Maintaining Daily Operations
• Chapter 6. Collaboration and Outreach
• Chapter 7. Programming and Workshop Ideas
• Chapter 8. Accessible Resources and Technologies
• Chapter 9. Developing a User-Centered Culture
• Chapter 10. Keeping Up to Date
• About the Authors
• Index