Forum on Library Services for People with Disabilities

Submission to Forum on Library Services for People with Disabilities

By Mariyon Slany, Executive Director, Narkaling Inc., Perth, Western Australia www.narkaling.com.au

Gaining access to libraries and alternative to print materials by people with intellectual disabilities.

This paper will pick up on some of the points raised in previous papers presented to this forum, but has a particular focus on alternative to print resources for people with intellectual disabilities. Points that are raised in this paper tap into the planned agenda on points 4 (production of alternative format materials and sharing information), point 8 (adaptive technologies and web accessibility) and point 10 (library staff training and awareness).

The Australian Library and Information Association states that it adopts in principle the right of people with a disability to equitable access to information through all library and information services, and promotes the observation of current Commonwealth, state and territory disability discrimination legislation. Additionally at the Disability Services Minister Conference in August 2001, one of the five key policy priorities aimed at improving the linkages and coordination of services for people with disabilities included “strengthening access to mainstream and generic services” which has an impact on library services, particularly in regards to people with intellectual disabilities.

From Narkaling’s experience running reading groups for people with intellectual disabilities, the actuality of these principles as stated above is not as clear in practice. What we are suggesting is there has been a certain amount of rhetoric, however service provision has not changed markedly in a few fundamental aspects – areas which involve staff training, community attitudes and putting sufficient money into resources that are practical, applicable and useful for people with disabilities – all of which lead to the issue of access to print. This paper is obviously selective in what it is examining, in that it is looking at specific issues that have arisen whilst Narkaling was attempting to provide support and mentoring in libraries in Western Australia to adults with intellectual disabilities. Additionally we have included some specific comments made by people with intellectual disabilities concerning their experiences with alternative to print resources at libraries in WA.

The Narkaling Network Reading Group

Narkaling has demonstrated in the past that by linking the visual with the audio, people that were previously thought to have little or no literacy ability have been shown to enjoy reading. By incorporating the visual with the audio, Narkaling Reading Kits have been successfully used by a group of people with print disabilities and this has started discussion of books and other book related activities, which were previously thought impossible.

By narrating books at slow speeds, NRK's allow the reader the time to start correlating the audio speech sounds that they hear around them in everyday conversation, with the print words in the book. This process works on advancing literacy skills. What is unique about a Narkaling Reading Kit is that a copy of the published book always accompanies the audio cassettes and that the speeds of narration are much slower than the usual audio book.

The NRK means that a person can

  • Use the audio version to follow the print rather than just listen
  • Choose a book at a reading speed to suit her or his ability
  • Read books that would normally be too difficult to read without frustration or failure.

Narkaling is a promoter of literacy and language development. It has a vision that all people have the right to read. By working in conjunction with members of the print disabled community we want to assist in facilitating literacy, language skills and community integration.

There is much to be discovered in setting up a network of book mentors and reading groups for people with disabilities. This discussion examines some of those issues.

Objectives:

  • The project was designed to provide supported use of libraries for people with developmental disabilities who require support; as well as a plan for continued independent use of public libraries for those people who developed skills through the mentor relationship. Within the library the participants had the opportunity to achieve a meaningful use of library materials, whether that was in alternative formats or any of the other material libraries provide.
  • To raise the profile of people with developmental disabilities in the community by facilitating their use of the public library system.
  • To provide a meaningful leisure activity for people with developmental disabilities from which a proportion of them may have developed increased skill levels of communication and self-awareness, as well as an awareness of others in the community using the libraries.
  • To incorporate other community organisations in the Narkaling Network Reading Group.

Quote from a participant and mentor concerning the improvement of reading skills:

NH: Because of the nature of her reading skills I don’t know how you could say she is actually reading the words but she's feeling confident to think faster… and this is where I’m not quiet sure how we’ll be able to reconcile her thinking speed now with the identification of words.

NH: I think she was very very…hesitant about the fact that she would be able to identify solid passages of writing.

NH: I think she now feels far more self assured though not necessarily accurately…

MS:Right…

NH: …but more self assured that she can identify passages of the writing as I said even though she hears the text and speaks it aloud she is actually reading aloud.

NH: …I think the tapes less intrusive.

The Midland public library in WA experienced a raised awareness of the needs for people with disabilities, and participated in disability awareness training programs for staff.

“Through this experience the self esteem of the participants can be enhanced as they become familiar with using the services, resources and interacting with staff and other patrons. For the library staff and mentors, awareness and understanding of the needs of community members with an intellectual disability is heightened resulting in a breaking down of barriers and improved communication. ” August 26th 1999 M Kahlert Mgr. Swan Shire Public Library Services.

The then WA Minister for Arts, the Honourable Peter Foss, wrote a reference about the value of the project, which included a comment about the presentation to participants ceremony:

“At the ceremony, I listened to one of the volunteer mentor’s talk about her involvement in the project. She talked about her love of reading and how she had hoped to introduce that love to the participants with developmental disability. She was genuinely moved by a feeling of sadness that there were people in the community who did not have her experiences of joy and acceptance at their local library.

I think projects such as the Narkaling Network Reading Group are of great benefit to the community. They show how it is possible to integrate groups of people who may not necessarily have sought each other out, but can offer a great deal to each other. Each mentor can have the chance to develop a one on one relationship with a person who has an intellectual disability, thus broadening his or her horizons in terms of understanding and communication. Each participant has the recognition that they too do want to and can read books, magazines and other print material that is not available to them through standard means. These things can only contribute to an increase in self-esteem for all involved and a marvellous way of truly experiencing community.”

The Honourable Peter Foss MP, November 1999 at Narkaling.

Adults with intellectual disabilities participated in the project and these are some of their comments:

“I like the Narkaling Network because I can meet new people and go to the library and read lots of books.” One of the participants from the Narkaling Network Reading Group who had previously borrowed books from the library but had given up when he received a fine for an overdue book. Now was his chance to sit down and read more of the words. He said that the best thing about the Narkaling Network was sitting at Narkaling and reading the books for an hour. (January 2000 transcript)

M But you have read some of the books by themselves (i.e. print copy without slow speed tapes) have you not?

B Yeah, but it was too hard, it was a bit too hard.

M Okay, Couldn’t you read all the words or…?

B I could read about 10 pages but I couldn’t read the rest of it…

M And so what’s the difference when you have the tape? What happens when you have the tape?

B I can listen with the book.

M So when the person’s reading the word you recognise the word…

B Yeah.

Recommendations

  • The Narkaling Network Reading Group can be a step towards confidence building and integrating more fully into the community. One of our participants said, “I want to use reading to get a better job. Also to meet people and learn new things.” This is tangible evidence of an increase in self-esteem as he is setting goals arising out of the experience of reading. This participant has seen books as the gateway to further information. In response to a question about whether he knew books had a whole lot of different information in them prior to starting the Narkaling Network, he replied: “No, I found out all these new words and stuff.” In his day to day life, he says “I can’t always read things at the supermarket or even my letters. I sometimes ask my sister to help me with reading letters or I bring them here or ask the social worker. Sometimes the social worker helps me but sometimes she’s too busy” (January 2000). By advocating a service that is directly assisting people with intellectual disabilities to move towards independence where possible, to create outside interests and to be more integrated into the community, we feel that libraries around Australia would be facilitating an excellent advance in services for people with disabilities.
  • People with print disabilities need sustained support and confidence building to fully participate in the future millennium of reading. Providing resources is one way of doing it. Providing supported environments with mentors, volunteers, and interested carers is another way of doing it.
  • “The distribution of literacy is also a good predicator of the magnitude of differences between social groups, making literacy an essential element for promoting social cohesion.” (IALS 1996 report) It can be seen that projects such as the Library Access Program and the Narkaling Network Reading Group add to the development of social cohesion by integrating different groups of individuals who may otherwise have not met, and also works towards improving their literacy ability.

We recommend that the Narkaling Network Reading Group be supported by all local government councils so that all libraries can facilitate this sort of social cohesion and contribute to literacy wealth in the overall community, and provide a constructive service for people with intellectual disabilities.

Other interest groups that would benefit from Narkaling’s recommendations for supported community library access:

  • People who have English as Second Language
  • Newly arrived migrants
  • Older people
  • People with hearing problems

Concerning other recommendations mooted in the NLA Forum on Library Services for People with Disabilities papers.

Narkaling believes that the promotion of library services to people who have a disability, particularly intellectual disability, needs to take into account a lot more than physical aspects of access. Essentially we would argue for a community supported environment, which includes library staff, librarians and community mentors who need to make people with print disabilities aware of the scope of resources that are available to this group. Obviously library staff need to be sensitive to the needs of people with intellectual disabilities, but to do this, they need to take advantage of disability awareness raising training that is offered. Only then is the stated goal of integration and offering generic and mainstream services going to ever work effectively. As Sue McKnight says in her paper “people with disabilities need equal amenity and dignity” and it often boils down to one bad interaction to dis-enable a person with disabilities from that service provision (be it a library or school) for the rest of their lifetime.

Narkaling would also reinforce the notion of enhancing communication issues when dealing with people with disabilities. Effective communication and listening skills are absolutely vital to deal with people with intellectual disabilities and once learnt, these skills enhance workers in all aspects of workplace communications. Training service providers at all levels is an imperative that could be easily facilitated nationally – it would also create a greater level of understanding for the needs of people with both intellectual and physical disabilities and have repercussive effects in the wider community. Janet Poole notes in her paper “Building accessibility and adaptive technologies for library users with disabilities” that in almost all cases “community support is vital to success….In many cases, people with disabilities will not be aware of specialist services and will not consider the public library a resource. To overcome this perception, a continuing schedule of outreach activities should be undertaken”. This in fact is what Narkaling is doing via the Narkaling Network Reading Group. It is presently being facilitated in WA through successful grant applications and is not State funded, but we have had in kind support from LISWA and Yvonne Morant for this project. Our aim would be to extend this service ideal across Australian libraries. To access the printed word is a complex process and people with intellectual disabilities require awareness, time, support and integration and access to mobility to achieve this access. Access can be seen to be a many-layered term depending on which group you are assisting. Additionally technology is often placed in libraries as a one step procedure for dealing with the needs of people with disabilities. Low literacy level texts and books and Internet sites combining some text and visual literacy would be more useful for a greater group of people with disabilities than much of the equipment that people with disabilities need help from library staff to utilise.

  • We would endorse the creation of a national electronic database of resources in accessible formats that could be available to disabled students at any Australian university.
  • As Dr Lynne Davis says in her paper “The Worm’s Eye View…” there are combined totals from the specialist services of 16 000 unique titles with 2500 new titles being added annually for people with vision impairment. As Narkaling is the only specialist provider for people with intellectual disabilities, it can be said that there are 300 titles nationally for people with intellectual disabilities being provided specifically through a concentrated government approach, despite their best intentions to make access equitable for people with disabilities. Narkaling still has to struggle to convince many libraries around Australia that these resources should be bought for their print disadvantaged clientele.
  • We believe the suggestion made by Geoff Payne in “Braille: Creation, funding, collections, deposit publications” concerning Extensible Mark-up Language is an excellent suggestion. His suggestion was as follows: the Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) standard provides for the production of digital talking books comprising text marked up in XML and spoken audio. The text can be used for navigation and the audio reading commenced at points corresponding to headings and other elements of the text. The National Library explore the practicality of accepting XML files in lieu of hard copy as the legal deposit copy of materials published in Australia, with the objective of producing alternative format versions in Braille (and other alternative formats to standard print) on request.
  • Dr Kirsty Williamson’s points on strategies and policies for improving access, we believe, are applicable to a wide area of library activities and relate also to appropriate resource purchasing, therefore we would endorse the following recommendations:
    • Marketing of library services for people with disabilities is a key strategy that needs to be pursued on a broad, State- and Australia-wide basis as well as at the local level. The involvement of local disability groups is crucial.
    • Library policies are needed to improve and regulate access to online services for people with disabilities in public libraries and to ensure the availability of staff to assist with computer and other special requirements. They should be integrated with other ‘access’ policies.
    • Policies should also take general accessibility issues into account, e.g., the provision of adjustable computer desks to accommodate wheel chairs of various sizes, and location of computers to allow enough space for the movement of wheel chairs.
    • The effectiveness of library policies, with regard to disability access, should be the subject of a simple but regular evaluation process.
  • In addition, Dr Williamson’s comments on training were also borne out in Narkaling’s project for adults with intellectual disabilities, and so we would endorse her recommendations as follows:
    • One-on-one training is usually best for persons with disabilities.
    • Libraries should develop partnerships with local disability organizations, with a view to facilitating peer, one-on-one training for library patrons.
    • Library staff will require training, preferably of the ‘hands-on’ variety, as well as follow-up access to online and print materials for complex browsers and equipment.
    • Libraries should attempt to set up a rolling, continuous process of peer training amongst staff, so that skills do not become out-of-date.
    • Disability awareness kits can play a valuable role in providing library staff with increased insight and confidence when working with people with disabilities. Disability Awareness Kit (1998) produced by the RVIB is a fine example of such materials.
    • Library policies should cover all aspects of training, including evaluation.

Several people have mentioned in their discussion papers that training of library staff and librarians is an integral point in all these service provision suggestions. This is increasingly obvious to us from the Narkaling Network Reading Group experiences, however the difficulty is in achieving this training in a sustained and intelligent manner. The other suggestion that falls into this category would be the promotion of library services to people with disabilities so that they know what is in the library, and how they can best use it. This once again comes back to library staff training, clear and large signage and most importantly community support. Communication is the key.

References

Slany, M.,“Read the words if you can” – an account of a group of people with intellectual disabilities accessing literature and books, 1999.

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