Making the Library Accessible for All: A Practical Guide for Librarians

by Jane Vincent

Overview

"Libraries hoping to make their services and programs fully accessible will want to check out this useful and thoughtful guide. Highly recommended." -Library Journal

Libraries have an ethical, and usually a legal, obligation to make their services accessible to disabled patrons and employees. Making the Library Accessible for All is a single-source guide that librarians can refer to when planning, remediating, or evaluating accessibility. With a unique holistic approach, it emphasizes the perception of people with disabilities as partners in meeting a common goal rather than as a population to be “served.” Topics addressed and updated in this second edition include:

• Multiple interviews with librarians and other experts in the field about proven accessibility strategies for libraries, personal experiences, and cutting-edge innovations;
• Innovations in providing assistive digital technology, many of which are free or built into common programs;
• An overview of changes coming to accessibility guidelines for digital content;
• Up-to-date information on legislation that may affect some or all libraries;
• An evaluation of how the COVID pandemic has changed both library services and patron needs

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781538176818
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/02/2024
Series:	Practical Guides for Librarians , #81
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	202
Sales rank:	410,538
Product dimensions:	8.46(w) x 11.03(h) x 0.52(d)

About the Author

Jane Vincent is assistive technology manager for the University of Michigan, providing direct assistance to individuals, web accessibility evaluations, and other activities relevant to electronic accessibility and universal access. She has provided consultation to libraries on accessible technology acquisition and use, and has evaluated website accessibility for businesses and organizations. Jane has presented at conferences of the American Library Association, the Public Library Association, and the California Library Association, as well as at multiple conferences on assistive technology, aging, and usability. She is author of Implementing Cost-Effective Assistive Computer Technology and A Guide for Digital Assistive Technology Provision to Postsecondary Students, and her writings have been published in Library Hi-Tech News, JASIS, Communication Disorders Quarterly, MacWorld, and the blog “Access on Main Street.”

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations
Chapter 1: What is Accessibility?
Chapter 2: Communication Accessibility
Chapter 3: Materials Accessibility
Chapter 4: Architectural and Environmental Accessibility
Chapter 5: Training and Event Accessibility
Chapter 6: Technology Accessibility
Chapter 7: Web Accessibility
Chapter 8: The Accessible Library
Glossary
About the Author
Index

Editorial Reviews

Starting from the point of view that disabled people are the experts, Jane Vincent has written a readable and comprehensive guide to library accessibility for library directors, department heads, and frontline staff. Her thorough understanding of the subject allows her to extend traditional library standards to encompass accessibility. Clear examples of disabled people navigating library services, followed by in-depth interviews with library staff, many of them disabled, bring home the message that accessible libraries are necessary and doable. This will be one of my go-to resources.

Carrie Banks

Issues of accessibility have changed since 2013 when the first edition of Vincent’s book was published. However, as the author states, “your library still needs and wants to attract more patrons with disabilities.” To this end, this book provides a starting point, noting useful practices and resources. This second edition adds interviews, new legislation and standards, expanded technology (e.g., teleconferencing and artificial intelligence), and broader library scope (i.e., public, academic, and special libraries)…. Vincent's clear and engaging writing and her experience-based advice make for a welcome addition to the series[.]”

Booklist

10/01/2024

Vincent's (assistive technology manager, Univ. of Michigan; Implementing Cost-Effective Assistive Computer Technology) update to the 2013 edition of this book offers a starting point for library staff and administrators to understand the nuances of accessibility and collaborate with people with disabilities to provide safe, comfortable, and sensitively designed library environments. While Vincent also discusses legal accessibility requirements for libraries in the United States, she stresses that, regardless of regulations, the more important goal is to promote inclusion, combat discrimination, and provide equitable access to all library services for all patrons. The book provides an overview of how accessibility can be realized, like communication, materials (electronic formats, DVDs, audio, multimedia), architecture and environment (ADA standards, noise, chemical sensitivities, physical barriers), events (in-person, virtual), technology (built-in, free/open source, displays, input, new technologies), and web accessibility (standards, library websites, testing). Each chapter features in-depth conversations with librarians and accessibility experts, many of whom identify as disabled. These interviews underline the book's central argument that libraries should collaborate with people with disabilities rather than make assumptions about their needs. The book includes three appendixes (including a handy checklist for presentations) and a glossary of frequently used terms. VERDICT Libraries hoping to make their services and programs fully accessible will want to check out this useful and thoughtful guide. Highly recommended.—Sarah Hashimoto

Library Journal

Libraries have long been an entry point and introduction to literature, ideas, and opinions; a window to the world, affordable by all. There is nothing that it is more important to be than accessible to all. And Jane Vincent is the perfect docent-problemsolver to help us understand both the totality of what a library is and how to make its myriad faces accessible.

Gregg Vanderheiden

[T]his work is of use to any library open to the public, as well as any library that wants to make its services accessible.. . .What makes this book valuable for the novice or uninitiated to the world of accessibility is a list of acronyms and abbreviations at the start, along with three appendixes that offer questions for accessibility resource people, a checklist for presentation/lecture accessibility, and a test plan for hometownlibrary.com.. . .Written in an approachable and nonpreaching manner, this book can be read cover-to-cover for an overview, or individual chapters can be read on an as-needed or as-desired basis.

American Reference Books Annual