Library services for persons with disabilities: twentieth anniversary update

In recognition of the twentieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), this survey updates the progress and reflects on the status of academic health sciences library services for people with disabilities since the Nelson study in 1996. The results of this survey extend beyond academic libraries to hospital libraries and include areas where all libraries can improve disability access. Based on a 24% response rate, libraries have addressed accessibility of technology in cost-effective and relatively easy ways. Libraries are reactively rather than proactively making changes to services for persons with disabilities.     

Play For All at Chicago Children's Museum: A History and Overview

In 2004, Chicago Children's Museum founded the Play For All initiative, which creates a community where play and learning connect for visitors of all abilities. The Play For All team discovered that families with children with disabilities were looking for an opportunity to explore and enjoy the museum without limitations and the fear of being judged. CCM also learned that being ADA compliant was not enough; being accessible and inclusive meant going above and beyond the ADA. Children's museums are a rare treat where almost everything should be interactive and ready to be played with. The Play For All team has made significant changes to the exhibits, staff training, and programming at Chicago Children's Museum by working with local families with disabilities and partner organizations. A culture shift has taken place within CCM. Play For All is now a top priority when decisions are being made.     

Improving ADA Access

Summary

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) motivated libraries all over the United States to evaluate their accommodations and services to patrons with disabilities. This article presents a case study of the Texas Tech University Libraries project to meet the needs of their patrons in relation to ADA. The study focuses on including adaptive technologies in the library environment to aid blind, hearing, visually and physically-impaired patrons and increasing library staff awareness of the needs of patrons with disabilities. Findings from the study will also benefit school, public, and special libraries that are evaluating their access for patrons with disabilities.     

Help between disabled and ablebodied persons: An exploratory observational study of a feedback system

Because of concern among both disabled and ablebodied individuals about the issue of helping behavior, an exploratory observational study of helping in three settings was undertaken. Previous research had examined the frequency with which the disabled are helped, but had not examined the communication accompanying that help. The present study was interested in investigating the behaviors which actually occur in regard to helping, rather than what people say they do. The settings included a sheltered workshop, a social activity group, and a university with a large population of disabled students. The results indicate that much helping behavior occurred, but little verbal communication accompanied that help. There were few requests for or offers of help. In the three settings studied, helping did not appear to be a serious problem. No negative reactions to offers of or requests for help were observed. There were some instances, however, when those apparently needing help did not receive it. On the basis of the observations reported in this study, seventeen tentative “rules” based on our findings have been generated.     

谈图书馆为残疾人提供信息服务——IFLA第89号专业报告解读

IFLA第89号专业报告旨在倡导“每个公民都有进入图书馆的权利”。文章参照报告的体系结构,从图书馆的物理设施、馆藏资源类型和服务及社会残疾人组织和个人交流三个方面进行解读。谈谈图书馆应如何保证和满足残疾人用户对文献信息的需求。     

“More alike than different”: learning about diversity from people with disabilities

Courses: Interpersonal Communication, Health Communication, Intercultural Communication

Objectives: After completing this semester-long activity students, should be able to (1) apply course concepts (i.e., stereotypes, identity, listening, language, and conflict) to diverse real-world scenarios; (2) explain the utility of intergroup contact theory in relationship to communication and social diversity; (3) critically reflect on social diversity explored through communication behaviors; and (4) develop communication competence toward diverse others, specifically persons with disabilities (PWDs).     

加拿大多伦多公共图书馆残障用户服务研究

加拿大多伦多公共图书馆在残障用户服务方面颇有建树。笔者在实地调查的基础上,综合网络调查、文献调查和访谈调查等方式,对其服务政策、服务资源、服务形式、服务管理加以梳理和分析,采用以IFLA第89号专业报告为框架构建的公共图书馆残障用户服务调查评估指标体系对其作简单的定性评价。结合课题组对广东省公共图书馆残障用户服务调查所反映的国内图书馆残障用户服务的情况,指出多伦多公共图书馆残障用户服务中可为国内业界带来启示或引为借鉴的几个方面:注重残障用户服务管理,注重残障用户服务的基础资源建设,注重残障用户服务细节。表4。参考文献24。     

Up in the air: Are airlines following the new DOT rules on equal pricing for people with disabilities when websites are inaccessible?

This paper details the findings from a study of airline compliance with Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations requiring that persons with disabilities not be discriminated against in the pricing of airline travel. These regulations mandate that if an airline website is inaccessible for persons with disabilities, the airline must charge the same price that is available on the website and may not charge a fee for purchasing tickets over the phone. To evaluate compliance, the websites of leading airlines were examined for accessibility in terms of the ability to check flight schedules and order tickets. Among the four airlines with barriers to accessibility on their websites, a series of phone calls were made by researchers to assess whether the DOT regulations would be followed. Two of the airlines, USAirways and United, practiced discriminatory pricing, even after being made aware of the regulations, in over one-third of the phone calls. This paper details the findings from the study and analyzes the data in terms of website accessibility, civil rights for travelers with disabilities, and policy implications.     

Providing Access to Engagement in Learning: The Potential of Universal Design for Learning in Museum Design

Following passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), many museums improved the accessibility of their facilities. Even so, individuals with disabilities still lag behind in participation and engagement in museum experiences. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) provides an alternate model for the design of museum programs and exhibit spaces, one that is more aligned to progressive concepts of disability, providing not only physical access but also access to engagement in learning. In this article we argue that UDL has the potential to substantially improve the design of informal learning environments. Through two illustrative examples, we describe how the UDL design guidelines can be used to improve the probability that engagement will occur as individuals interact with exhibits, programs, and people in museums.     

Reference Services for All: How to Support Reference Service to Clients with Disabilities

Summary

Ideally, when clients come in to the library, reference staff should be able to focus on their information needs and not be distracted by the disability. Questions like “How will he get into the building?”, “How can she use the catalogue?” and others, become important because they indicate barriers to the use of the library by persons with disabilities. If these are not addressed on an organizational level, they affect the individual with the disability, the service provider, i.e., the reference librarian, and the quality of the service provided.     

Role of the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped in the Dissemination of Information to Visually Impaired People

ABSTRACT

‘Disability’; the ‘D’ word generally speaks its own meaning, as anyone who is different from others in terms of physical and mental impairment. There are various types of disabilities; broad categories such as physical and communication disability, mental illness and mental retardation, learning disabilities and so forth. In this article, an attempt has been made to describe the term ‘visual impairment’ which falls under the category of physical and communication disability. The next section of the article presents activities of the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped, Dehradun, India to make the visually impaired self-sufficient and to recognize the role played by the Institute in disseminating information to them.     

We Are People First: Framing Organizational Assimilation Experiences of the Physically Disabled Using Co-Cultural Theory

This study explores how organizational members with disabilities experience and manage organizational assimilation in the workplace. The organizational socialization model was used to initially analyze participants' assimilation experiences and co-cultural theory was used as a framework for examining how participants negotiate assimilation. Interviews with 24 participants with physical disabilities were analyzed. Results illustrate a dynamic and difficult process of managing and negotiating assimilation, using a variety of communication strategies such as accommodation (attempts to keep some cultural identity) and assimilation (attempts to conform), as opposed to separation (rejecting common connection with dominant members and bonding only with co-cultural members).     

社区图书馆全程个性化服务模式探析

社区图书馆全程个性化服务模式从内容上包括个性化的虚拟服务以及个性化的实体服务。全程个性化服务是现代社区图书馆生存与发展的必然趋势,通过手机图书馆、个人数字图书馆、信息"便利店"、儿童阅读"天堂"、阅读"管家"、残障读者"保姆"等个性化服务模式的构建,引入发达国家的图书馆建设理念,将使社区图书馆个性化服务模式落到实处。     

"No One Wants To See Them":

With the continuing trend of deinstitutionalizing persons with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities, and the development of community based housing and social services to these populations, libraries are acquiring potential users with special needs which many libraries and their collective staffs are ill prepared to serve. This article describes these populations, examines some of the information needs, and presents methods of providing service and a rationale for community outreach. The state program in Rhode Island is outlined, describing efforts to reach community residents through their public libraries and the state operated Bookmobile.     

Navigating the hidden void: The unique challenges of accommodating library employees with invisible disabilities

Academic libraries have a long history of commitment to diversity, inclusion, and accommodation and are frequently models for other academic departments and outside industries. For example, libraries often consider users with disabilities and work to adapt services, collections, and technologies to increase accessibility for as many users as possible. Libraries also take care to accommodate employees with disabilities, but like many other industries, often unintentionally perceive disabilities only as ones that are immediately visible. This column will discuss the unique challenges that library employers may face when needing to accommodate employees with invisible disabilities, provide a selected overview of the literature surrounding invisible disabilities and library employees, and give selected tips to help library employers and employees better understand and accommodate employees with invisible disabilities.     

Willingness to communicate,communication apprehension,introversion, and self‐reported communication competence: Finnish and American comparisons

The purpose of this research was to make comparisons between Finnish persons and persons from other populations, particularly those from the United States, on a variety of common measures of communication orientations. The results of the study indicated that differences between Finnish and United States samples do exist, but the differences are primarily restricted to willingness to communicate and introversion. Data relating to communication apprehension and self‐perceived communication competence for the two cultures are remarkably similar. However, these two variables appear to be much less predictive of willingness to communicate for Finns than they are for Americans.     

Communicating in a foreign language: Its effects on perceived motivation,knowledge, and communication ability

Attributional bias research suggests that those who find it difficult to communicate in a foreign language will explain their inability in ways that pose the least threat to a positive self image. The applicability of this reasoning to foreign language communication was tested in a two (writing in English or in a foreign language) by two (subject familiarity) factorial experiment. As expected, writing a message in a foreign language led to perceptions of reduced motivation. Participants who communicated in a foreign language about familiar others reported lower levels of perceived foreign language skill than those who communicated in a foreign language about an unfamiliar person. Participants who described unfamiliar persons in a foreign language reported greater familiarity with these persons than participants describing unfamiliar persons in English. Results support the claim that attributional biases may affect some foreign language communication tasks.     

Empiricism,paradigms, and data

Rather than being based on an indefensible distinction between empiricists and interpretivists, this essay argues that such a distinction, although generally held by many persons, is actually not defensible on the basis of a supposed theory–data interaction. Covering law explanations are not part of common theory in communication research. Paradigmatic distinctions are typically thought of as being fundamental to the point of irresolvable, and when they are based on philosophical positions should be sharply questioned. Research is best performed when paradigms do not limit the activity or the thought of researchers.     

Library Services for Persons with Disabilities

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) prohibits discrimination with respect to the disabled in public entities and in "public accommodations and services operated by private entities." Passage of the ADA has prompted libraries all over the country to evaluate services to these users and has generated a vast number of resources on the ADA and on services to disabled patrons. This article examines the burgeoning literature and presents a case study of The University of Alabama Libraries' efforts to meet these users' needs. The case study focuses on the establishment of an adaptive technologies lab to serve the needs of blind, visually impaired and learning disabled students, and upon the continual efforts to heighten staff awareness.