Dan Weiss & Meg Kolaya

1. Central Issues and Strategies for Public and Academic Librarians to Provide Inclusive Services Dan Weiss & Meg Kolaya December 12, 2014

2. Central Issues and Strategies for Public and Academic Librarians to Provide Inclusive Services • Libraries and Autism: We’re Connected • Applying Universal Design principles and Universal Design for Learning strategies to library programs, spaces and services • Serving patrons with ASD and their families • Evaluating Library accessibility • Customer Service • Attitudes and perceptions • Limits in providing inclusive service

3. Universal Access / Design • Products, built environments, services • Usable to the greatest extent by everyone – or anyone – regardless of age, ability, etc. • Physical approaches: curb cuts, ramps, lever handles not knobs, • Barrier free: removing barriers to access & participation • Flexible, varied approaches to serve all differences, needs, etc.

4. 7 Principals of Universal Design for Instruction At the Center on Universal Design at North Carolina State University a group of architects, product designers, engineers, and environmental design researchers established seven principles of universal design to provide guidance in the design of environments and products. • Equitable use.The design is useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities. Example: A professor's website is designed so that it is accessible to everyone, including students who are blind and using speech-to-text software. • Flexibility in use.The design accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilities. Example: A museum, visited as a field trip for a course, allows each student to choose to read or listen to a description of the contents of display cases. • Simple and intuitive.Use of the design is easy to understand, regardless of the user's experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration level. Example: Control buttons on science equipment are labeled with text and symbols that are simple and intuitive to understand. • Perceptible information.The design communicates necessary information effectively to the user, regardless of ambient conditions or the user's sensory abilities. Example: A video presentation projected in a course includes captions. • Tolerance for error.The design minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or unintended actions. Example: Educational software provides guidance and background information when the student makes an inappropriate response. • Low physical effort.The design can be used efficiently and comfortably, and with a minimum of fatigue. Example: Doors to a lecture hall open automatically for people with a wide variety of physical characteristics. • Size and space for approach and use.Appropriate size and space is provided for approach, reach, manipulation, and use regardless of the user's body size, posture, or mobility. Example: A flexible science lab

5. Challenges Serving Patrons with ASD • Lack of knowledge about ASD – public and staff • Behavior is communication • Inclusion – modeling by staff • Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

6. Evaluating Your Library • Services • Physical Space • Programming

7. Customer Service • What is it? • Why should you care • Common sense, the Golden Rule • Proscribed by management • Our video and website • www.librariesandautism.org • Basic customer services skills and techniques provided can serve as universal models for best-practices library service to all members of the public.

8. Attitudes and Perceptions • The right frame of mind – how do you look at things • Person-first language • Being empathetic and proactive in the moment • “Nothing about us without us”

9. Limits to inclusion • Where to draw the accommodation line? • Rules and policy • Inclusion vs. Special

10. Resources • www.autismandlibraries.org • This is My Library • Non-verbal communication guide • Including Families of Children with Special Needs by Carrie Banks • Planning for Library Services to People with Disabilities by Rhea Rubin • National Center on Universal Design for Learning • www.udlcenter.org/implementation/examples • National Center on Accessible Instruction Materials • aim.cast.org/learn/historyarchive/backgroundpapers/promise_of_udl/what_udl - .VIH_KNalYUY • Disability is Natural • www.disabilityisnatural.com/ • The Wakanheza Project (wa-’khan-ja) • www.co.ramsey.mn.us/ph/cp/wakanheza.htm