Closing the 95 percent gap: library resource sharing for people with print disabilities.

ABSTRACT

Experts estimate that only 5 percent of the world's publishing output is made accessible in alternate formats for people who cannot use print. While some popular commercial digital audio and textual products are available to people with print disabilities, many people do not have equal access to reading materials and other resources. People who cannot use print due to a visual, physical, neurological, or perceptual disability need libraries to provide the equitable access. Libraries need strategic partnerships, improved public policy, and international agreements to fulfill the promise. Equity laws, union catalogs, new technology, standards for production and resource sharing, postal subsidies, and commercial production of alternate formats have all helped. This article focuses on key elements that affect library resource sharing for people with disabilities in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Challenges include attitudes, organizational isolation, diversity of alternate formats, nonadherence to standards, inaccessible online services, an uncooperative publishing industry, inconsistent access to equipment, and inadequate training. Recommendations are made to improve the legal framework, develop sharing library communities, and apply universal design principles.

INTRODUCTION

"Libraries have historically served as our nation's great equalizers of knowledge. In today's increasingly diverse and complex information environment, their services are needed more than ever" (ALA, n.d., p. 3). Yet, this equity does not extend to those who are print impaired: people who cannot use print due to a visual, physical, neurological, or perceptual disability. Experts estimate that only 5 percent of the world's publishing output in English is ever made accessible in alternate formats for people who cannot use print (Canadian Library Association Working Group, 2005). Some of this reading material can be provided by mainstream popular audio books and accessible e-texts that are available to consumers either online or as digital products, just like a bookstore or online shopping channel. However, for people with print disabilities who cannot afford to pay for the consumer products and do not have computers, this marketplace model bars them from full participation in the information society (Kavanagh, 2002).

Despite decades of promoting equity in human rights through legislation, the 95 percent gap in alternate format accessibility for people who cannot use print is still hard to bridge. Resource sharing among libraries is a logical way to proceed. Although some library networks have developed innovative partnerships with private producers, achieving the "library without borders" to meet the "hidden demand" has had significant challenges. This article focuses on ways in which libraries are working collectively to address this issue. It also considers the issues that need to be dealt with in a more collaborative way. These include both advocacy and service delivery issues at the local, national, and international levels. Examples from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom will highlight the successes and the major challenges of the collaborative approach to resource sharing.

The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) says "as information and documents are located all over the world, good libraries have always functioned as part of national and international networks. All libraries for the blind should be aware of collections held in other libraries and borrow less popular items from these sources" (Kavanagh & Skold, 2005, p. 31). The literature shows that successful libraries are working together to address the obstacles by encouraging interorganizational collaboration, planning for diverse alternate formats, developing standards, encouraging accessible online services, providing access to adaptive technology, and, perhaps most importantly, developing training strategies.

FOUNDATIONS OF RESOURCE SHARING RELATED TO ALTERNATE FORMATS

To understand the context of resource sharing related to alternate formats, this article will first lay the foundation by identifying factors that affect successful collaborative services: diverse customer needs, information-seeking behaviors, social and professional attitudes, the "digital divide," proliferation of formats, and legal issues.

Customer Needs and Information-Seeking Behaviors

A major barrier to resource sharing is lack of information about the clients and their needs. Depending on the definitions, estimates suggest that 10 to 20 percent of the general population have print disabilities (AFB, 2005a; Rubin, 2001). Library users who are print disabled are as diverse as the population (Canadian Library Association Working Group, 2005). Access to services is affected when funding agencies use inconsistent and contradictory definitions of who is eligible. People with learning disabilities, in particular, are often excluded from services or subjected to a lower priority of service (Black, 2004). A collective understanding and acceptance of common definitions will assist the process of resource sharing.

A "one-size-fits-all" service approach serves no one particularly well (Creaser, Davies, & Wisdom, 2002; Council on Access, 2000). Some public librarians focus on the elderly population, who read popular books, newspapers, and magazines translated into an alternate format such as audiotape (Evans, 2000). Some educational producers of alternate formats concentrate on textbooks, not aware of the need for access to a much broader spectrum of resources (NEADS, 2004). Higher education students with print disabilities need the same resources as their peers in the same courses (NEADS, 2004). The subject matter ranges across the spectrum of all postsecondary vocational, undergraduate, graduate, and professional courses. These students need access to textbooks, research reports, workbooks, online databases, periodical indexes, course packs, reference material, and audio-visual resources (Epp, 2005). They also need training in information literacy.

Some people access their resources through their public libraries by walking in, browsing, and selecting their own resources, perhaps with the assistance of a reader's advisor (Corrigan, 2003). Others require products to be delivered to their homes, assistive living centers, or extended care homes (Ryder, 2004). Those people with computers, technological skills, and adaptive technology want their books delivered directly to them electronically over the Internet. Some academic clients do their own searching in catalogs; others ask librarians for assistance (Saumure & Given, 2004). To meet the diverse needs, libraries need to move beyond their own boundaries to maximize the expertise and services of each and learn from each other.

Social and Professional Attitudes

"The single most important aspect of creating an accessible environment is staff attitude" (Wade, 2003, p. 311). "Our professional forefathers institutionalized social exclusion" by creating charity organizations such as the National Library for the Blind, beginning a long period of separation and neglect of blind readers (Owen, 2004, p. 58). In the UK, librarians say they struggle "alone to cope with a sometimes hostile institutional environment where equality of access for disabled users was seen by management as a nuisance or even a waste of time" (Chapman, McFarlane, & Macwilliam, 2004, p. 40). "Students with learning disabilities are the largest group of students with disabilities on most college campuses ... little research has been done to determine the nature and extent of barriers ... to information. The presence of assistive technology in and of itself does not guarantee that these students will have access to information technology" (Wimberley, Reed, & Morris, 2004, para. 1). Many students in higher education do not know what is available to them through their academic libraries. This lack of awareness becomes an enormous barrier to making the information world, whether digital, print-based, or multimedia, accessible to print-disabled persons (Hicken, 2002). Conversely, there is a growing awareness by service providers and consumers that the expectation by some higher education institutions for students to "self-publish" alternate formats may not be the most productive use of the student's time (NEADS, 2004). Education about the needs of people with print disabilities, for library institutions…