$100K grant: Ferguson Library aims for increased accessibility
STAMFORD — Thanks to a federal grant, the Ferguson Library has set its sights on better serving its patrons with learning disabilities or reading barriers.
The Institute for Museum and Library Sciences awarded Stamford’s public library just under $100,000 to study what library workers already know about increasing reading accessibility and develop tools to help teach librarians what they can do better.
“The idea is to find out what do librarians know about these things,” said Susan LaPerla, Ferguson’s Director of Public Service. “What kind of user populations are they serving? What needs do they have? And where can we fill in the gaps?”
Starting in September and for 18 months after, the library will spearhead a survey of librarians across the country to pinpoint what services are already readily available for patrons with limited vision, especially when looking at images or text on a screen. The money comes specifically from the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, an IMLS initiative dedicated to giving librarians better tools to serve their populations.
“It goes beyond just people with a visual impairment,” LaPerla said. “People with cerebral palsy, people who are autistic — there are a lot of different things that go on in a person’s mind that make it more difficult to decode traditional print.”
For years now, assistive technologies have been available for individuals with low vision, including magnifiers, digital audiobook devices and text-to-speech technologies. But the project’s purpose, according to LaPerla, is to provide a roadmap for communities — regardless of their size, or location, or funding — so they can aim toward doing better for an underserved group.
“We’ll really start to delve into options and present them in a way... to say, ‘Look, this is a low hanging fruit. This is what you could do right away,’” she said. Then, as time passes, and hopefully more money comes, libraries will already know what initiatives or services to tackle next.
Though the survey and roadmap both have broad target audiences, everything will come back to Stamford eventually, according to LaPerla. It’s about providing value through the library for everyone, she said, regardless of who they are, and giving people a reason to return time and time again.