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:
- Building Accessible Library Collections for Individuals with Disabilities presented by Renee Grassi, 1 hour and 50 minutes from Reaching Across Illinois Library System.
- 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.
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
- Libraries and Accessibility LibGuide from Connecticut State Library
- Accessibility in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums: Introduction LibGuide from the Pratt Institute
- Project Enable: Expanding Non-discriminatory Access By Librarians Everywhere is a toolkit with resources, training videos, and a blog.
- 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.)
- Community Equity, Data, and Information Lab (CEDI) from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).
- Equal Access: Universal Design of Libraries from DO-IT: Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology
- Project Enable: Expanding Non-discriminatory Access By Librarians Everywhere
- 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.
Additional Resources
- American Library Association (ALA)
- Public Library Association: Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice
- Accessibility of the Hellen Keller Archive
- Library Accessibility Alliance: Advocates for Accessible Digital Library Resources
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