Has your library become more accessible & inclusive of people with disabilities? Share your story with Project Enable!
As part of our IMLS Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian grant, the Project ENABLE team would like to solicit stories from librarians, support staff (including paraprofessionals, aides, etc.) and administrators describing any changes you have made (even small ones can have big impact) in the past five years to improve accessibility and inclusion for people with disabilities in your library or even when your library was closed and things went virtual. Some examples are: a revised or new program or service, a renovation or simple changes to the layout of furniture in your library, adding physical supports to the inside or outside of your building (e.g., ramps, railings, elevators), provision of special signage or hearing support, use of an assistive technology, revision of your library’s web site or a library program’s web site (e.g., adding closed captioning, providing alternatives to text). These are just a few of the possible changes you might have made to your library to accommodate your patrons (and perhaps staff) with disabilities.
If we choose your story, we’ll pay you $100 and post it on our Project ENABLE site (https://projectenable.syr.edu) so that it can inspire others.
Deadline for submissions is June 15, 2021.
Each story should include (1) your name, the name of your library, and the location of your library (city, state); (2) how you came up with your idea for change; (3) what that change was and its intended goal; (4) any barriers (if any) you had to overcome to make that change; (5) any supports (e.g., people, funding) you had (if any) to make that change; (5) evidence that you achieved your goal through impact (revealed in an observation, a conversation, etc.) of that change on at least one patron with a disability. Each story should be 400-500 words in length.
targetingautismlibs.com 