Course:LIBR559A/Lacey, P., & Smith, P. (2010).

Citation

Lacey, P., & Smith, P. (2010). Inclusive libraries. Journal of Assistive Technologies, 4(2), 44-48.

Purpose of article

This article introduces a project named “Inclusive Libraries” that aims to develop an available library for people with learning disabilities. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate examples of current successful inclusive practice libraries around Midlands area in the United States, and also guide the future development of accessible resources and services to people with learning disabilities in public libraries.

Main Argument(s) and supporting evidence

In this article, the authors pointed out that there were two main steps of the development of an accessible library for people with learning disabilities: first, it’s necessary to conduct a thorough interview to understand what the patrons need from the library. In this study, both phone interviews and face-to-face interviews were conducted to gather patrons’ needs and requirements for inclusive resources. Secondly, libraries need to design activities for both adults and children with learning disabilities and offer staff training sessions on this topic as well. These ideas and plans have been proven to be effective by the success of this inclusive libraries project.

Method(s)

Speaking of methods, this article used a case to support the authors’ plans and ideas on developing an inclusive library. In addition, methods such as survey and interviews were used in the process of gathering patrons’ opinions during the development process as well.

Areas / Topics / Keywords

The keywords of this article can be concluded as "public library", "accessibility", "learning disabilities", as well as "library project". According to this article, “profound learning disabilities” are defined as “people who will not learn to read and write in the conventional way”. In addition, Inclusive resources referred to “sensory stories and multimedia stories, photo albums and scrap books, reading icons and symbols, simple conventional and picture books, television and films, specially-designed websites, and digital medias”.

Theoretical frameworks

This article was based on the SCOT framework, since the authors pointed out that technologies need to be designed and developed based on patrons’ information needs. As defining people (both adults and children) with learning disabilities as a social group with special needs, libraries are encouraged to take their needs into consideration and modify their websites and system development, as well as digital devices, in order to ensure that these resources and technologies were accessible for this social group.

Novel ideas

In this article, the authors designed an evaluation process which hasn't been used before: on the one hand, people with learning disabilities were included, and methods as Talking Mats or photographs were used to allow these patrons who were not able to express themselves in words/text to fully express their feedback. On the other hand, library staff members that were trained during this project were also invited to contribute to the evaluation as well. Lastly, people who were not involved in this project were also included in the final part. The combination of these different perspectives made the evaluation comprehensive and relatively objective, which showed a novel way to evaluate the success of a library project.

limitations

However, the design of the inclusive libraries only focused on collection (resources) development and accessible digital devices (touch- screen computers), programs and activities designed for people with learning disabilities were not thoroughly explored in this article.

In addition, to develop a successful inclusive library that is accessible for people with learning disabilities, staff training and outreach the community is also imperative in order to make sure that those people who are offering services know what to do, however, this aspect has been overlooked by the authors. Therefore, more discussion of how to bring in experts to do staff training, how to do promotion and how to outreach the LD communities, is needed.

Potential Contributions

In a word, although left out the design of programs and activities, this article can be used as a good example to guide the development of an accessible public library for people with learning disabilities.

Page Author: Wendy Zhang