I attended a very good webinar this morning on “Library Accessibility Alliance webinar #1 — An Introduction to Disability.” I have watched/attended other disabilities training classes/talks in the past, I sit on my library Diversity Committee, and I have relatives living with disabilities and so this is a topic that I am interested in. While much of the information was familiar, there is always something new to learn. There were over 130 people attending the Zoom webinar, so a great size group.
Here is the blurb on the webinar:
“The Library Accessibility Alliance (LAA) Steering Committee is pleased to share news about an upcoming webinar series for fall 2020. The webinars are available at no charge, and will be recorded for later playback. For more information these activities, please see the Big Ten Academic Alliance website.
An Introduction to Disability: This webinar will walk the audience through what is disability and how it is defined. The session is interactive. In this session you will learn about why disability laws are important, what libraries should think about in terms of their own accessibility for people with disabilities, and how compliance and accessibility are fundamentally different concepts.
Presenter: JJ Pionke — Applied Health Sciences Librarian and Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign”
Here are some highlights from the webinar:
Did you know that it takes about 10 years between the onset of a mental disorder and when that person gets assistance!
Compliance means minimum. So if your library is ADA Compliant you are just doing the minimum. Are you being accessible – web presence, buildings, services, etc.
The library field is not welcoming to those with disabilities. This is no big surprise. Lots of fear about disclosing disabilities.
Library signage needs to be better with size, font, color, where is the signage/wayfinding, are rooms adequately numbered, both inside and outside the library?
Accessibility is a process, it is never going to be done, and we need to keep working on it
People need accessibility from cradle to grave
Don’t put pressure on people with disabilities to try and fix everything.
A good talk to watch: Brené Brown on Empathy vs Sympathy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZBTYViDPlQ