#96: Caption and describe your virtual programs

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Lots of libraries have begun or ramped up prerecorded online programming due to COVID-19. If your library is posting videos, provide captions or transcripts for people with hearing difficulties and consider providing an audio description track for people with visual impairments. Captioning and transcribing are great work-at-home projects for front-line staff because they require little technology or specialized skills, and are an opportunity to educate those staff members about the needs of patrons with disabilities.

#95: When you can't help, document it

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A common reason that requests for resources or policy changes to make the library more accessible are denied is a belief that ‘no one will use it’ or that ‘we don’t get any complaints, so it must not be a problem.’ Obviously in a perfect world we wouldn’t have to make a case that barriers should be removed before they stop people, but given that we don’t live in that world, gather your ammunition for this argument. If you have to tell a patron no, if you see a patron give up, if you hear a patron complain to another patron about a barrier even though they don’t tell their complaint to you, write it down, save it somewhere, and tell someone with authority when you have a good opportunity.

#93: Most American Spanish-speakers don't care about the flag of Spain

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If you have third-party services (a self-check machine, a computer reservation system, etc.) that offer languages other than English, check and see if there’s an icon representing each language option. If there is, and there’s one for Spanish, check with the vendor to see if you have the option to customize what the icon looks like. It’s very common for vendors to use the flag of Spain for Spanish, which isn’t intuitive for most American Spanish-speakers (imagine having to select a picture of the flag of Great Britain to get an English option). If possible, find out where the plurality of Spanish-speakers in your area have roots, and swap the Spanish flag out for Mexico, Puerto Rico, or whatever is most likely to suggest ‘that’s intended for me’ to more of your particular patrons.

#92: This is a good time to ask for physical accessibility upgrades

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In a time when it’s safest for people to touch things in public spaces as little as possible and there are new pools of grant money available for COVID-19 response, you might have an opportunity to improve your physical space. Touchless automatic entry doors, barrier-free entrances to restrooms, automatic paper towel and soap dispensers, and even just rearranging furniture and shelving to allow people to maintain 6 feet of distance as they pass through the building are all public health benefits that will also make your building more convenient for people with physical disabilities if/when things get back to ‘normal.’

#87: Consider a hearing loop

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A hearing loop, also called an audio induction loop, is a sound system that transmits directly to compatible hearing aids (most hearing aids are compatible with this technology). They are simple for end users (both the speaker and the listener), and run from a couple hundred dollars for a small portable unit that you could use at a service point to a few thousand dollars or more to have one installed in a large program room. I found this page to be a useful introduction to how they work: https://www.hearinglink.org/living/loops-equipment/hearing-loops/what-is-a-hearing-loop/

#86: Lurk on a relevant forum

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You might not currently have a regular patron with a particular disadvantage as far as library access, but that could change at any time and you need to be prepared. If you don’t have, for example, someone who is visually impaired who can advise you about your library right now, check out an online forum such as https://www.reddit.com/r/Blind/ and listen to what people who are visually impaired have to say to each other about dealing with access challenges in public places like yours. When you can, try to listen respectfully to existing conversations rather than asking people to answer your specific questions—the forums you will find most easily will likely be full of people who don’t belong to the group dropping in to try and use the people there as a sounding board for a question that’s already been asked many times, then disappearing once they’ve gotten the information they need.

#85: Get a free 'consultant'

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If you work in a multi-location library system, get a coworker from another location to come visit your library for an hour and look for areas where you could do better as far as accessibility goes. If you work in a single-location library, get a friend (ideally a library worker, but not necessarily) to do the same. No matter how hard you work, someone seeing your space with fresh eyes will notice barriers that you’ve acclimated to.

#80: Use a cool tool to make your writing easier to understand

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We use a lot of complicated words in brochures, signs, and other writing you might find at a library, for example: “prohibited,” “access,” “circulation,” and “reshelve.” Lots of people will have trouble with terms like those, from people have a first language other than English to people with cognitive disabilities, not to mention children. It can be hard to figure out which words might be problems when you are so used to them, but fortunately there are some neat tools on the internet that can help you. I like the Hemingway App. It points out hard words and sentences that are too long and gives you a readability score.

#79: Holiday closures may not be obvious

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If you have library users who are immigrants or who are otherwise isolated from the dominant culture in your area, make sure that you advertise any holiday closures extensively and far in advance. For example, many American libraries will be closed today in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Although this is a federal holiday, it’s likely to come as a surprise to the patron who arrived from Mexico six months ago and was counting on being able to come in and print out the lease agreement for his new apartment today.

#78: Find somewhere for laundry or a shower

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A common issue with patrons who are homeless is that they don’t have much access to showers or to washers to clean their clothes. You may end up having to ask someone to leave the library for the day because the way they or their belongings smell is interfering with other people’s use of the library, and it’s easier on everyone if at the same time you can point them to somewhere free they can remedy the problem.

#77: Get somewhere soundproof

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Private study rooms are often seen as a luxury in renovations, but having somewhere someone can make noise in the library without disturbing others is an accessibility issue. Someone who has a verbal tic, someone who is hard of hearing and needs to have a loud reference interview with a staff person in order to get help, or someone who can’t read and needs information read to them may really not be able to fulfill their library needs without a soundproof or semi-soundproof room.

#75: Get a microphone and get people to use it

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If you have a large program space, get a microphone and make using it the default for big programs. Try and get something that is easy and convenient for presenters, so they aren’t tempted to avoid it. Asking “Can everyone hear me okay without the mic?” when you clearly don’t want to use it encourages people who are hard of hearing not to speak up in order to avoid drawing attention to themselves and being the one who ‘makes’ the presenter have to do something they don’t want to do.

#73: Mobile sites matter

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Libraries have a tendency to prioritize the desktop experience of their websites over the mobile experience, but lower-income patrons are vastly more likely to have a smartphone than they are to have a desktop or laptop computer. Services that work only on the desktop version of the website are effectively unusable by those patrons unless they make a special trip to the library for computer access. If you have any say in how your library’s online presence is managed, advocate for as much parity as possible between mobile functionality and desktop functionality.

#72: Shelve materials at an appropriate height

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A typical shelving unit in a public library is likely to be somewhere in the range of 8 feet high, if not higher, and to have shelves that go down almost to the floor. Try to avoid using the lowest and highest shelves as much as possible, since both are hard to access. If you must use one or the other, choose which one with your audience in mind: Children’s books should be closer to the ground since a three-foot-tall person can’t get things off a five-foot-high shelf, and adult fiction might be better off higher since it’s hard for many adults to bend or squat down to reach items that are low to the ground.

#70: Ask for a designated adult

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Not every kid who visits the library has a mom or a dad, let alone both. If you need to talk to an adult in order to help a child, instead of asking if their mom or dad is there with them, ask something more general, such as “Do you have an adult with you?,” “Is the person who takes care of you here?” or “Can I talk to your designated grown-up?”