You can use these resources to improve your own understanding, as discussion starters, and for training your staff. We encourage you to be curious and find other resources that you think might work well for your organization. The resource guides are not intended to be complete, but to make it easier for you to get started.
Table of Contents
Time Savers
Read:
- Prioritizing Accessibility and Disability Inclusion at Your Library, 3 minutes, from WebJunction.
- Services to People with Disabilities: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights, 6 minutes, from the American Library Association (ALA).
- What Are Best Practices for Creating Alt Text?, 3 minutes. This article gives us good and bad examples to help understand how alt text can give meaning to an image.
- Make Your Library ADA Friendly, Not Just ADA Compliant, 5 minutes, from the Public Library Association (PLA).
Watch/Listen:
- Accessibility Toolkits at the San Francisco Public Library, 9 minutes. This is a good resource for simple, low cost ideas to make libraries more accessible.
- Librarian JJ Pionke on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Libraries: “It’s personal to me”, 5 minutes from the American Library Association. Pionke also gives us questions we can ask ourselves when doing an accessibility walkthrough.
- Problem-Solving for Creating an Accessible and Inclusive Library, 9 minutes on the Project ENABLE homepage, scroll down and watch 2 short videos of a “Library Challenge” and a “Solution Implemented by a Librarian”
Toolkits and Training
Online Toolkits:
- Library Access Checklist from the ALA.
- Library Staff with Disabilities from the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) of the ALA.
- Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights from the ALA
- Project Enable: Expanding Non-discriminatory Access By Librarians Everywhere, an IMLS project with training modules and resources for libraries.
- Libraries and Accessibility LibGuide from Connecticut State Library
- Accessibility in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums: Introduction LibGuide from the Pratt Institute
- Inclusive Services: Assessment Guide and Introductory Videos from the Wisconsin Department of Instruction Libraries. The Assessment Guide includes worksheets that any library can use or adapt and the videos are excellent for training. (The surveys are strictly for their library system.)
- Disability and Libraries Toolkit from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. The introduction says, “We have built this tool kit to help library workers learn more about disability equity and inclusion, and understanding the needs of disabled community members. Toolkit modules offer resources and facilitate thought and discussions about intersectional disability inclusion in libraries.”
- Equal Access: Universal Design of Libraries from DO-IT: Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology
- Society of American Archivists: Accessibility and Disability, This toolkit is useful for both curators and archivists.
Webinars:
- Building Accessible Library Collections for Individuals with Disabilities presented by Renee Grassi, 1 Hour and 48 minutes.
- The Americans with Disabilities Act: What Libraries Need to Know, 84 minutes from the VermontLib. Video has excellent breakdown of chapters. Kathy Gips, Director of Training at the New England ADA Center presents a library focused training on disability access in libraries and historic buildings.
- Carli Spina: Using Universal Design to Make Your Library More Accessible and Inclusive (CC), 1 hour from the South Carolina State Library.
- Inclusive Services Training for Library Staff, 4 training modules. An IMLS project from San José Public Library and the Santa Clara County Office of Education’s Inclusion Collaborative and Digital Design & Media Services.
Additional Resources
- American Library Association (ALA)
- Public Library Association: Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice
- The National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled
- Accessibility of the Hellen Keller Archive
- Library Accessibility Alliance: Advocates for Accessible Digital Library Resources
- Greenwich Library: Accessibility is an example of an accessibility page on a library website.
*This Libraries resource guide is dedicated to Carissa Haston, who worked at the New Cumberland Public Library, PA and a founder of G-PACT.
Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution unless otherwise noted.
