John Cole: Well, good morning. I'm John Cole. I am the director of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress [ the Library ] . The Center for the Book is the Library's reading promotion arm, but we're also interested in library issues and anything related to -- well, today to issues related to accessibility. We are pleased to be the host of this particular event in the Library of Congress's Disability Employment Awareness Month series of events. And, if you have not been to the opening one, there are still some events coming. I also would like to draw your attention to an exhibit which is in the foyer of the Madison Building. And I noticed that Eric [ Eldritch ] has brought the exhibit to us today, or at least part of it, in the back of the Mumford Room. So in many ways, we are approaching our topic, you know, of accessibility, library accessibility and facilities through demonstrations and through this program. My own awareness has been heightened during this particular month thinking about this program and noticing when I was at the Kennedy Center the other night the beautiful Kennedy Center booklet on access and accommodations for patrons and visitors with disabilities. It's very well put together; very well presented. And, before I mentioned it today, I did check with Eric to make certain that the Library of Congress, if we didn't have something like this quite ready, that we have something underway. And he assured me that a new edition of the Library of Congress's booklet on the same topic is underway and the information, though, is all available on the Library's Web site right now. But I encourage you, next time you go to the Kennedy Center, to take a look at this model brochure. And, when I looked at it, I did see some programs that I need to learn about. I didn't quite understand what they were, but there's no doubt that the Kennedy Center is doing a terrific job in this area. Our program today consists of presentations by three experts in their own areas. We will follow it, if there is time, with a brief question and answer period. And again, the program itself will be part of the Center for the Book's program series, which means it will be available on our Web site in a week or two and we hope that this will stimulate interest in the topic and help to spread the word about the importance of accessibility and the importance of the Library of Congress's entire month of this topic, of the Disability Employment Awareness Month. I am going to introduce all three speakers right now before I turn it over to Eric. And once the program starts I am going to ask the speakers to come up in the order in which I am introducing them and also simply to turn it over to each other in hopes that we will be able to move this through smoothly and have a chance for questions from any of you. Our first speaker is an architect, John Salmen. And John is the author of "Everybody's Welcome: The Americans with Disabilities Act and Museums," which was published by the American Association of Museums in 1998. John is a licensed architect who's specialized in the area of accessible and universal design for more than 30 years. He founded Universal Designers and Consultants in 1991, and has been involved in all aspects of design for disabled and elderly people, including code development, facility evaluation, design, construction, writing, research and teaching. He now is the president of Universal Designs and Consultants in Takoma Park [ Md. ] and the publisher of "Universal Design Newsletter," a free quarterly publication. And Eric did pull a copy of John's book out of the Library of Congress's stacks, and here it is, nicely bound in the Library of Congress binding, "Everybody's Welcome: The Americans with Disabilities Act and Museums." And so today he will be addressing, of course, the same topic but we'll be looking together at libraries. Our second speaker will be an old friend of the Library of Congress, Nancy Davenport. Nancy had a long career at the Library and many in our audience know her. She came, I learned this morning, a little bit after I did. She came in 1972, and has had a career in a number of jobs in what is today [ the ] Library Services [ Directorate ] . She left Library Services a few years ago to become the president of the very important organization in our field, CLIR, the Council on Library and Information Resources. Nancy currently, though, is right back in the front lines with her job at D.C. [ District of Columbia ] Public [ Library ] , where she is the interim director of Library Services. And I was very pleased when I learned that Nancy was going to be working with Ginnie Cooper, who is an old friend, who's now the director at D.C. Public [ Library ] . And I thought they would make a good team and they have made a good team and I think that some of the improvements that we are seeing right now at D.C. Public are due both to Ginnie and to Nancy and, of course, to the D.C. Public Library staff, which finally has some leadership that I think will take advantage of all of their talents. Our third speaker, Rosemary Kelly, also represents the co-sponsor for this event with the Center for the Book. It's the Library of Congress Reference Roundtable, and Rosemary is now the chair of the Reference Roundtable. But she is currently in the Copyright Office and she is the head of the Records, Research and Certifications Section of the Copyright Office's Information and Records Division. That's a mouthful, but it puts her right in the middle of worrying about and thinking about reference work and thinking about today's topic and its importance. And each of these speakers will come at this from a different angle and we look forward to what they have to say. But before we start, I would like to introduce Eric Eldritch, who is the Library's Access Programs manager, for a few words, Eric, and then the program will start. Thank you, Eric. [ applause ] Eric Eldritch: Good morning everyone. To our panelists and to the coordinators and sponsors of this, I bring you greetings, and to those of you in the audience here in the Mumford Room. And let's not forget that this is a webcast and will be made available to libraries across the nation through the Center for the Book. And it's very important for us to realize the leadership role that we have in bringing programs that allow us to consider events. And we're doing -- we're talking about disability and about access. This is the month called Disability Employment Awareness Month and we're focused on accessibility in areas of employment. So, as a way of kind of warming up for our presentations today, I want you to think about some different slices of ways to slice disability and to think about accessibility and to think about universal design. When we talk about libraries and we talk about accessibility, please remember four important groups. You need to remember applicants, who are applicants for employment. You need to remember employees, employees with disabilities or employees who later become employees with disabilities throughout their career. And then remember the researchers that come to libraries themselves and remember the visitors that come to the libraries, often for library programs but not actually doing research. And so, when we talk about accessibility, we have to keep these four groups in mind, because you can have people, quote unquote, "behind the reference desk" who are employees with disabilities as well as members of the public that come to libraries. And of course, there are people that would like employment in libraries. And so there's a wide range of things that we can think about and I hope that this helps us, as John said earlier, help us narrow down our focus today to where we're actually talking about accessibility. When we talk about accessibility, three ways to slice this topic are in the title of the program that we have today. We're talking about library accessibilities for facilities, so in actuality the structures themselves. Then, the programs that we offer and how do we make those accessible? And then the services. And so, it's really important. Often times we look at providing an interpreting service and it's kind of like ordering a projector for a room. But it's not quite that simple and we want to think about it in its totality. How does accessibility in one area affect accessibility across the board? I think that what you'll find in this program today are people that are very interested in using their area of expertise to talk about accessibility and universal design. And we welcome an ongoing dialogue not only in this library, but in libraries across the nation. I'd like to now introduce Venetia Demson, who comes from D.C. Public Library, to bring a few words. We've been working together on programs here and there. Venetia? [ applause ] Venetia Demson: Thank you, Eric. As Eric said, I'm Venetia Demson. I'm the chief of the Adaptive Services Division at D.C. Public Library. The Adaptive Services Division is charged with operating the D.C. Regional Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. We also have a Deaf Services librarian, who is responsible for both programming American Sign Language interpretation provision and volunteer-taught American Sign Language classes at the library. We also serve institutions and senior residences as well as providing home-assisted library services for those who cannot leave their home or their residence. In addition, we are charged with raising awareness of the staff at the [ D.C. ] Public Library system about the needs of the community of people with disabilities and older adults and beginning to push the technology out into our entire system to make our whole system accessible. This is a large job. At present, Adaptive Services is an umbrella name. What we hope, what we envision for the future, is that the whole concept of a separate Adaptive Services will evaporate into the system overall and everything we do, everyone we serve, accessibility is built into it. So, thank you very much and I look forward to the program. It has been a pleasure to collaborate with Eric and collaboration with our colleagues in accessible services throughout libraries, museums, and other agencies in the District of Columbia is a very important way to begin to provide these services to everyone. Thank you. [ applause ] John Salmen: Good morning. I'm John Salmen. I'm the president of Universal Designers and Consultants and I'm going to talk to you a little bit this morning about the principles or universal design and accessibility as they relate to libraries. Give us the first slide, please. There's a difference between universal design and accessibility that is lost on many people, but it really gets to the very heart of the issue of trying to provide things that accommodate people with disabilities. We publish a newsletter that is, copies are in the back, and it's available free at universaldesign.com, but it talks about this difference between universal design and accessibility, whereas -- because universal design is a process that tries to accommodate people by embedding choice into the things that we provide for people, as opposed to accessibility, which is a regulatory minimums that have to be met. The next slide. The process -- it's a process, as opposed to an end product. And that's a very important thing, because the more we learn about people and the more we understand about how they function in our facilities and our libraries, the better we are able to accommodate them. So as we learn more, we do better. It moves and changes. The idea is that by providing choice, giving people alternative ways that they can do things, then we start to accommodate everyone. When we try to do one size fitting all, it really doesn't fit a lot of people, especially as our society has become so pluralistic and there are so many diverse capabilities and interests and abilities of people who are using our facilities. It's kind of like a Swiss Army knife, you know, there's something for everybody in a Swiss Army knife. It really provides choice. But it deals not only with the built environment, with the walls and the floors and the doors, but it deals with the equipment, it deals with how we provide services, it deals with the virtual world as well. So, it's all of the things that we deal with in terms of humans organizing the chaos and creating things that people are going to be using. So, it really kind of blows your mind. It's a huge area when you think about it. And we'll get to what the definition of accessibility, which is really very narrow and is useful in regulatory, but universal design is a much better concept to aim at in terms of trying to provide excellent services for people. Next. There are seven principles of universal design that were developed by North Carolina State University at the end of the last century. Now [ laughs ] , that's kind of funny to say, but in fact, they are -- we're sort of evolving because universal design is being found to go in different directions. It's a huge movement in terms of curriculum development that's universally designed so that students of all abilities can get something out of the curriculum, rather than just presenting it in one manner. So, there is a number of principles that have been proposed that we have found over time to work well in the process. Remember, a it's process of designing things universally. The first is that the projects that we do are equitable, they work for everybody. An automatic door works well for somebody in a wheelchair, but also for somebody pushing, you know, a stroller or rolling their bag behind them or pushing a shopping cart. And so increasingly we see this kind of universal design that is especially interesting because, you know, for most of us we see an automatic door we just walk through it. We don't think universal design, but in fact, that's just what it is. The best universal designs fade into the background. People don't notice them, they just use them. So, it's been hard in many cases to get universal design to be understood because it's just good design; it just makes sense. But in fact, it takes a lot of thinking, in many cases, behind it to come up with designs that are in effect invisible, common sense that everyone would be able to use. So, equitable use is one of the first things, that people aren't stigmatized by having to go to the accessible entrance or use the special services. We try to integrate things into the mainstream. Next. Flexibility. Some people are right-handed, some people are left-handed. You know about Fiskars scissors? They work either way. It has been designed with choice into it. So, there are many things that we can do that can be done in multiple ways and to the degree we can provide this choice, it's useful. Next. Simple and intuitive. Go to IKEA and you get directions for putting together a table and there's no English. There's -- might be a little Scandinavian, but it's not really necessary -- [ laughter ] -- because what it does is simply a illustration that everyone can understand. So, trying to make things be clear and apparent to all people is really sort of a challenge. The front door of a building, you know, you generally want to have that be well-lit and you want it to be perhaps a contrasting color so people know this is your entrance, as opposed to something that is very hard for people to see. So this comes into many different layers in terms of how we make labeling on shelving be apparent and easy for people to understand. The size of graphics comes into effect here, the type fonts, things like that. So, how we can make it simple and intuitive is kind of tough sometimes. It's not always simple and intuitive. But when we start to think about the multiplicity of users, people with vision impairments, people with hearing impairments, people who are mobility impaired, the whole range, we start to come up with ideas, oh, that really make sense. Next. Perceptible information. Some people don't have certain senses of perception, hearing, sight, touch, and so the key is to provide redundant information. This Honeywell thermostat has little click stops that even in the dark you can turn it and know you've gone two degrees. And you can -- it also has raised characters so you can feel the six, the seven, the eight just by touch. It's very useful, of course, for people with low vision or who are blind, but man, it also works for somebody in the middle of the night when they want to just turn up the temperature a little bit and not, you know, wake up their wife, you know, by turning on all of the lights. Next. Tolerance for error. We need to provide systems that can work for people who may not have full coordination. They may have limited strength or hand dexterity. I anticipate that most of you at some time or another have used the Windows undo button. [ laughter ] This undo was a universal design concept that was brought to Microsoft by the Trace Research Center in Wisconsin to try to suggest, along with a number of other features, sticky keys and things like that. In the Microsoft world, you can modify your program so that it will allow you to just type with one finger. Or, if you've got sporadic hand motions, you can have it -- you have to hold the key for a couple of seconds before it registers, making it possible for people who have poor dexterity to still be able to use computers. Low physical effort is the next one. Things should be easy to operate. You shouldn't have to be, you know, a lineman for the 49ers [ laughs ] or for the Redskins to be able to open a door. Basically, we look at about five pounds of pressure, which when you measure it is almost nothing. It is very light. So, with the increasing amount of automated controls for faucets, for doors, for all kinds of things, it's really possible to do this very cost effectively these days. Next. And this is the final one, size and space for approach and use. The problem is the wheelchair is this huge space hog and it takes up an enormous amount of space, but it's also similar in many ways to what is necessary for people who use walkers or crutches, or also even canes, or somebody whose got a stroller with them. You know, the maneuvering space that wheelchairs allow, allow all of these people to be able to easily approach things. So basically, we need to have enough space. You know, the accessible farecard machines in the Metros, well, I mean they're wonderful for anybody who's carrying luggage, you know, going to the station or to the airport and it's a universal design that works for everybody. You don't have to have all of these features in any design, but in the process of thinking about how you set things up you want to be thinking about these. Evaluate your ideas, your concepts, your layouts based on these. Next. Okay, so that's universal design. It's really process, as opposed to accessible design. Accessible design is compliance with regulations. The ADA regulations are a set of criteria and, once you've met those criteria, you've met the law. Universal design isn't like that. Universal design says you can do better and better and better and you don't just try and reach some point, but you constantly try to find how we can do it better as we learn more about people and as our technology improves. Next. The state-of-the-art of accessibility regulations are the ADA and ABA, that's the Americans with Disabilities Act and Architectural Barriers Act Accessibility Guidelines, which have been published by the U.S. Access Board and have been adopted by a couple of federal agencies and have been proposed to be adopted by the Department of Justice for compliance with the ADA and have been, in essence, adopted by the building codes around the country in a harmonized document called the ANSI, which I sit on. I also was involved in the development of this. And these are attempts to try to clarify the criteria, because they are big and they are very involved. Today, I want to talk to you about just a few of the key concepts that relate to libraries -- next, please -- and that's these things: accessible route, maneuvering space, reach range, the range of reach for how far people can get stuff, visibility, being able to see and interact with things, and finally, interactivity in terms of carrels and stations and where we want people to be able to interface with our collections or with our objects or things that we have. So, I'm going to go through each of these very quickly. The first one is accessible route. Basically, we are looking for a corridor that connects everything that the public, or an employee, would need to use throughout the facility that starts at the property line and gets you into the building, gets you to all those places, and then gets you back out in case of a fire. So, this corridor is always three-feet wide, which is big enough for a wheelchair or an obese person or somebody who's on crutches. It can narrow down when it goes through doorways to as little as 32, but it has to widen right back out again. So basically, you're looking at taking a yardstick around your facility and make sure everything is wide enough that when you've got that yardstick, you know, side by side you can walk through all of the corridors. Pretty simple. Along this accessible route, there's no abrupt changes in level that are greater than a half an inch and the headroom is always high enough so even tall people who may have low vision won't be whacking their heads on overhead stuff. You know, stairs often are like this, et cetera. So, that's basically it. Next. Maneuvering space. The wheelchair, as I said, is really the space hog of this whole thing, but there are other types of mobility devices that really require about the same space. So, the wheelchair is a good sort of basic thing that everybody can visualize. There's the wedding cake concept here, which is if you describe a five-foot diameter circle on the floor, that's basically what you need for a wheelchair to be able to turn around in that space. However, that's not a cylinder from floor to ceiling; rather, it's a truncated cone with little steps along it that you can overhang stuff like lavatories or telephones or carols or work surfaces. So, you need to have the five-foot down low where the wheels and the toe rests are turning, but not up much higher than that. So, if you understand this you'll be able to do it all very effectively. Next. You can also turn a wheelchair in a t-configuration, similar to how you'd park a car, where the driving lane is along here and then when you want to park you park down in this area. When you want to go back the way that you came, you back your car out and go forward. A wheelchair can do that also wherever you have two 36-inch wide accessible routes that intersect. So, at the ends of stacks of books, if we have the cross-aisles also being 36, people can turn around there. Next. We also are able to obstruct one of the legs of that t-turn and still have it be useful. So, we can actually have very small carrels and bathrooms and work areas be fully accessible if we lay stuff out right. Next. The range of reach. There's an optimum range between about three and four feet. Stuff above four feet is tough for short-statured people or people in wheelchairs to reach. Stuff below three feet is tough for people who have back problems who are tall to be able to reach. If we want people to use stuff, put it between three and four feet. That's very simple. Next. Visibility. These are some illustrations that came from that book, Everyone's Welcome, that we did for museums a couple of years ago. And basically, it talks about what is the eye height of a wheelchair user or a short-statured person in terms of where you place the [ unintelligible ] , the tops of them, for people to be able to get into things. And we're basically looking at an eye height of about 40 inches. If you start to lay things out so a 40-inch eye height -- and, you know, for most of us that's kneeling to get that kind of an eye height -- then you're able to allow everyone to be able to use these things. So, the recommendation is having the bottoms of these things no more than 36 inches high and then people are able to use them. Next. If we're having interactive areas, we need to think about the controls and operating devices being able to be used by what we call the closed fist rule, that it's operable by somebody with arthritis. If you can operate a piece of equipment with your hand in a loosely clenched fist, everybody's going to be able to do that. Also, we need to think about adjustability because people come in many sizes. So, trying to have something that requires close inspection and not have it be able to be adjustable is very difficult, especially for people with low vision. And of course, the knee and toe clearance, which are standard for lavatories, desks, drinking fountains, or any kind of a station somebody may work with, are essentially enough space to allow the knees and toes, that you can see in the wheelchair user over there, to be able to slide underneath. And that basically calls for about 27 inches of clearance that goes back at least eight inches underneath the front edge of a table. That's it. Next. So, this is really a process. You have to keep in mind these kinds of concepts of what we're trying to do with accessible route and reach range, but this is really just understanding how people operate. And the more we understand about our patrons, our employees, about us and the expectations that the public have about accessibility, the better we can do in terms of making the environment usable by everybody. Thank you. With that, I'll turn it over to Nancy Davenport. [ applause ] Nancy Davenport: When John Cole introduced me, he said that -- he introduced all of the panelists -- said that it was going to be experts, well, you all know that that's not true when it comes to me, because I've been here and I've had many jobs and I'm not an expert in any one of these things. But what I do usually grasp is the essence of what's important about it and I can become the cheerleader. And Venetia Demson has been my tutor since I have been at D.C. Public, as Blossom Medina was when I was here. So, I wanted to tell you a little bit about what we are doing there and make this specific to this city that we all work in and many of us live in. And, as John also said, changes are afoot at D.C. Public Library. Ginnie Cooper was hired a year ago to become the chief librarian and I went in the same day that she did as her partner in this. Ginnie was hired to transform the library, not to upgrade it, but to completely transform it and make it an institution for the 21st century. And that means that we have to bring everyone along with us when we do create that library. Venetia and I were hired as part of that transformation team. We have five focus areas, and I believe that every part of the disability community will see themselves in these five focus areas. We are focusing on children, youth, and teens, we are focusing on library as community place, technology, building the kinds of collections of books and library materials that people want and need, and literacy and learning. We base our budgets upon these factors, we base our performance plans upon these factors, and we set our priorities based upon these factors. So, if we turn now to look at the work that Venetia does and that she influences throughout the entire system, we have to look at what does this large community look like when we reach out to develop programs. If we look at the United States as a whole, almost 20 percent of our fellow population of 303 million has a disability. Twenty percent have a disability that affects going outside the home. Twenty-eight million are deaf or hard of hearing. Ten million are blind or visually impaired. Two point nine million students receive some sort of special education services; 50 percent of those are identified as having learning disabilities. To make it specific and to bring it home, here in the District we have a population of about 570,000 people. Sixteen percent of them are over the age of 60. About 40 percent of that population, 37,000, have one or more disabilities. If we look at the city as a whole, 37 percent of the city is functionally illiterate. Twenty-four percent of the city has master's degree or above. You are building library systems for very different populations when you slice and dice these populations into their components. So, how do we build a library system that invites, encourages, and engages all of our population and makes our library the go-to place for community resources, for our customers, for government officials, and for community partners? We have to make our programs more accessible and more inclusive. We have to develop the kinds of programs and displays with content that are of interest to older people and to people with disabilities and involve them, when possible, and involve their families, their caregivers, and their friends. We have to build this disability training awareness into all of our programs for our staff. John, you're going to get an invitation to come and talk at one of our staff days. [ laughter ] We have to think about space, and we have the opportunity because we are going to be building five libraries. We have full funding to build four, the four that were closed for three years, and with Georgetown's fire, we will be rebuilding inside the Georgetown shell. So, it's a complete opportunity to rethink through the principles of universal design how you do build this to be intuitive and seamless and so seamless you ignore it, just as you suggested. How do we build the right kind of lighting so that it's suitable for interpretation? How do we have our directional signs in simple tactile maps? How do we have sighted guides help people along? I will tell you that the police force, sworn officers at D.C. Public Library are superb. They are always escorting people around the building, they know many of our patrons by name, and they know exactly where they're going and they ask what kind of day and did they have a good experience. They are the perfect kind of people that we want to be meeting and greeting the public. We are also required to make certain accommodations by having sign language at public meetings and making sure that that's our board meetings, which had not always been considered public meetings and only recently have committee meetings of the Board of Trustees been open to the public. We need to make sure that we have our braille books and our books on tape arranged conveniently. At one of our board meetings, a woman very bravely came forward and said, "I'm just learning to read English. I have been illiterate all of my life, and it would be really easy for me if you would put the printed book and the recorded books side by side so I could check them both out, because listening to the book as I read along improves my vocabulary." A very simple request. Listening is incredibly important to figure out how to go where your customer wants to be. We're creating a lot of remote access for our library. We create it through our Web site, but we also are creating it by buying a lot of downloadable materials. We have homework help that is downloadable to any student in the city or to anyone who has a D.C. Public Library card. At the other end is a teacher in a chat reference who will work a student through a set of problems, help construct a topic sentence for a paragraph. But we had to make sure that that technology was also accessible through those with low vision and that it was accessible through special devices. We have to find the ways that we participate and celebrate our communities that are accessible. We participate extensively in Arts On Foot. It's a celebration of art in the District of Columbia that includes sign language song, it includes poetry with synthesized voice, handicraft and creative works created by blind artists. We had to get very creative last year when they wanted to sell those inside the library. And we can only sell things in the library that benefit the library's collections, so we decided that having a donation of two items would satisfy that requirement and the sale could proceed. But it does mean being intuitive and engaged with the community and finding creative solutions that satisfy the moment. We have art displays that Venetia has attracted from around the country by blind artists that are on display at the Public Library right now. We're going to have, as we do every February, a month-long celebration of Black History Month. And, included in that celebration are very specific activities that are directed at and include specifically the disabled population to be participants in the audience, but to be participants on the dais as well. Where we're still falling short is how do we get words out? How do we get the word out to everyone about these services? Venetia does it well because she does it through word of mouth, she does it through the appropriate list serves, she networks within the community, and she works with all of the local chapters that are specialized within the disability community. We do it very poorly generically. We have a publication that comes out monthly that I will tell you I can't read. I wear one distance lens, one reading lens. Somehow, this doesn't fit in my focus area. We are going to be making this accessible to everyone, including accessible in a larger way. Just this week, I took over the responsibility for also shepherding through the process our communications and marketing team. So, it gives me a very direct handle now in being able to accomplish some of the things that need to be done. There are some things that libraries can do that are simple if you think about it. We had a requestor come to us recently and say, "You show movies every Wednesday night. How do I know whether or not those are captioned?" So, we'll now be advertising when they aren't captioned. Every movie will be captioned and we will turn it on automatically. We had another visitor who wanted to know how they could get certain kinds of materials delivered to their home. Well, there is a process of going through that, so you can put them in touch with Venetia to see if they meet the kinds of criteria that are responsible, that make people eligible for certain things. But then there's also the simple sensitivity that is human kindness. And we had visitors and customers who wanted materials during those dog days of July and August when the temperatures were 104 and 105. Well, it was very simple to call them and say, "Don't worry about coming out in the heat. We'll hold these materials until you get here to get them." You don't penalize people because they don't want to go out in that kind of weather that we were having. So, we're trying to effect all of these by putting the kinds of requirements to meet the law, sensitivities to meet each other and engage as human beings, and be able to recognize that there are very special clienteles that need literacy and learning services in order to succeed both as students and as adults. It means that we set up video clubs for those who will only do the caption movies, but it means that we include them in every video club. It means that when we're setting up our new travel books club, it is the perfect medium because so much of travel is audio, so much of it is visual, to be able to have a very inclusive meeting and book club from the very start as we begin to design all of these. It also means that you do very simple things. I don't know if LC's Catalog exposes the cataloging data that is almost automatic that says that these materials are captioned if they are collected DVDs for the library. D.C. Public didn't do it. We'll start next week when our new catalog comes up. But it's the kind of thing of just literally being aware and having a simple question asked and finding a creative solution. So, at this, what we do is we listen. We're listening to citizens all over the city as we begin building new libraries. Our meetings are called "Hopes and Dreams" meetings for the first series, as we meet with the community for what do you hope and dream to have in your library? And designing facilities is a piece of this and our architects are required to be engaged in the communities and building these meetings and as we build the collections. So, I hope that we're almost intuitively following some of the principles that John's outlined as -- and I've just given you an example of one city library that is transforming all of its services, including these services. Rosemary, it's your turn at the podium. [ applause ] Rosemary Kelly: Good morning everyone. My name is Rosemary Kelly. This morning I am going to speak about the third topic of today's panel remarks, and that is library services and accessibility. On a personal note, I have two daughters who have pretty dominant learning disabilities. And hearing a lot about the accessibility and what I know about my own reading room and how we help patrons sort of made me think through some of the notes that Eric provided for me to read from. So, looking down, please don't worry, but that's what I'm doing instead of being as eloquent as the other speakers. I am currently the chair of the Library's Reference Roundtable. It is a group of the Library's Reference librarians representing approximately 20 of the Library's reading rooms. We hold monthly sharing discussions on various topics, including access to and various forms of access to the collections of the Library. I have been with the Library for 27 years, mostly extensively with the Copyright Office. Again, I am head of the Copyright Records, Research and Certification Section. And it is my Section that provides the staffing and reference assistance for the Copyright Office Public Records Reading Room. And, as you may or may not know, the Copyright Office is nearing completion of its reengineering efforts which has included new universal public use furniture and PC stations in the Copyright Records Reading Room, that's LM-404, if you'd like to see some of our universal brand-new furniture. The principles and examples I site here are based in the front-line experience of reference librarians, collaborations with our Access Programs manager, and input from researchers and people with disabilities. I have organized my comments into seven broad categories for you to consider in accommodations when offering library services, both online and on-site. In each section I'll mention one concrete example of accessibility services to help open a broader discussion of what is available to make library services accessible. Online services cover a broad range of library services and accessibility needs. The nature of obtaining services from libraries in today's world is drastically different from the service models we initially designed for our libraries. A significant portion of library services are available online and patrons with disabilities, like the general population, are taking advantage of the ability to begin research services from home with the equipment most comfortable and accessible to them. General information, information we use to provide the public and library brochures, flyers, and circulars is now fully available and updated online. Today, libraries are providing a self-service kiosk of information that is available around the clock. Individuals with disabilities are finding online electronic resources as a new and mostly accessible format for obtaining library services. End users have access to this information using the assistive technology most convenient to them when the library Web site is designed with Section 508 guidelines. Vital information about your library, its services, and accessibility is available online. Individuals with disabilities can plan their library visit in advance, know the hours of operation, which entrances are accessible, which materials in which formats are available, what accommodations and assistive technology is available, all of this before ever coming into a library building. Online and e-mail customer service facilities routine and complex questions about library services. Savvy users are calling ahead to plan a successful use of their research time. Calling a library today is more convenient for both deaf individuals and help desk employees. By simply dialing 711 from any phone, a TTY user or a library employee can connect to a relay operator, who completes the call. This solves the problem that many libraries have of purchasing, maintaining, and training employees on the use of teletypewriters and dedicated phone lines. Another advance in telecommunication does away with the teletypewriter altogether. Web cameras are allowing deaf patrons and deaf librarians to sign directly to each other over the Internet. Web cameras are now used to contact sign language interpreters who serve as relay operators. Rather than typing, certain Web cameras that operate from D-Link technology have internal chips that allow libraries to provide services via teletypewriter and Webcam software while maintaining the integrity of library's firewalls. Now for those services that are provided on-site and made accessible for patrons with disabilities. The heart of library work is the reference inquiry. Today's reference librarians have moved passed the fear that internal services and the Googlization of our nation would replace the work of librarians. Astute researchers are learning to rely on reference librarians to guide them through the quagmire of information overload. Skilled librarians lead researchers to electronic resources that are only available on site as a service of the library and not available online. Libraries pay fees to allow patrons to access these databases. For researchers with disabilities, these services are readily useful to researchers when they are 508 compliant, made accessible with assistive technology or with a reader. Electronic database information can be made accessible for persons with low vision via font and color settings or software that allows screen magnification. Printouts, books, and a wide range of print material is made accessible via closed-circuit cameras that enlarge material onto a video screen or monitor. These materials can also be placed on a scanning and read-aloud via an electronic voice using assistive technology, such as the Kurzweil Readers' software. By using headsets, the sound output can be amplified for the user and be contained in a headset to not distract other patrons. When we think of assistive technology, making print and electronic resources available, it is important to note that we generally think of the benefit for researchers who are blind or have low vision. It is important to note that persons with dyslexia, learning disabilities, or other cognitive disabilities are also using screen readers and print readers for access to materials available at the library online or on site. I want to note several accommodations for common library services. When the library serves a large community of avid readers or researchers, trained volunteers can serve as personal assistants for library persons with disabilities, such as copying, wayfinding, and reading. As patron populations age, it is important for libraries to consider the furniture, equipment, and signage that are provided as a part of the services offered. New technology can be a barrier when persons are unfamiliar with or when the tool is not user friendly. Computers and copy machines can have tiny print or confusing arrangements of buttons and switches that are a problem for persons with low vision or limited dexterity. A quick consult with a library employee and posted instructions is an accommodation that generally works to help the patron be self-sufficient. When the accommodations requested are infrequent, reference librarians or library technicians can provide these services if they do not impede the regular workflow. Accommodations are also made on a case-by-case basis per your library's personal belongings policy. Certain individuals with physical or medical disabilities may need to bring in assistive technology, medicines, or water that would generally be excluded from the Reading Room. Libraries also routinely allow service animals as an accommodation. To sum up, let me remind librarians to not forget to focus on what we do best, which is to meet with the researcher, help them define the research questions, and to strategize an approach to getting the materials needed. It is easy to be distracted by a question such as, are your materials accessible, rather than the more specific question, are the materials that I need accessible? After the research is outlined and prioritized, then go back over the outline and discuss how the information needed in discrete stages of the research can be provided in an alternate or accessible format. When exploring the library for reading and research material, remember to search for material in alternate and accessible formats via interlibrary loan. Finally, I would like to remind researchers with disabilities to take advantage of the information that is provided online before coming to the library, to make calls in advance that help you define your research project and priorities into stages that help you accomplish your goal. Thank you. [ applause ] Eric Eldritch: Let's give another round of applause to all three of our panelists. [ applause ] And I just wanted to mention in case you are kind of like at a loss for all of this information, remember that we're making accommodations for different groups of people. And here's a quick list to keep in mind: people that are deaf and hard of hearing, people with low vision, people that are blind, people who have dexterity needs, meaning the movement of their arms or their hands, people with cognitive disabilities. And, of course, let's all remember the category that most able-bodied people fit in, we're called TABs -- and that's T-A-B -- that we're all temporarily able-bodied and whatever we provide now in accessibility could affect and help any one of us in the future. I do want to mention that here at the Library and in libraries across the nation we're providing what is called an Assistive Technology Demonstration Center. And the Library of Congress has built one here in our Library and it's very similar to D.C. Public Library's Adaptive Services. The other thing I wanted to remind you of is the Library of Congress is helping make this information much more available. When you go to the Library of Congress Web site, www.loc.gov, you can find a portal to disability awareness information. And we're turning a corner there, not only looking at people with disabilities as a medical model of something to be fixed or helped, but actually turning with pride to looking at people with disabilities as part of history and culture and as active contributors to society. So, these are sources that are available to all of you and I hope that you'll take advantage of them. At this point, if we have a question or two, we're going to take those and close out and I'll turn the program over for its closing to John. Anyone? I think we're close to the lunch hour, and so we can meet with the speakers here. And I'd like to ask John, if you would, come up and close us out. Thank you. [ applause ] John Cole: Well, it's been quite an informative and educational morning I think for everyone, including certain TABs in the audience -- [ laughter ] -- myself. I want to thank the people who cooperated in bringing this together. It really is an example of wonderful cooperation, not only between the D.C. Public Library and the Library of Congress, but between different offices and different aspects of this marvelous, complicated institution that we, the Library of Congress's employees, are part of. So, I would like to also tell you that, as Eric said earlier, that this program will be available on the Center for the Book's Web site in probably about two weeks. And I have left a news release about the program that has our Web site address on it, as you go out the door, if you might want a reminder. There are around 90 programs now available on our Web site. We've been fortunate, having made them available as cybercasts since about -- for about the last three years, so that's worked well. Finally though, I just want to name, for applause purposes, the people who were really behind this program, our speakers John, Nancy, and Rosemary, and also Eric and Venetia. Thank you all for a wonderful effort. 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