A&AT, not AT&T

Disclaimer: This is my second time writing this post because it apparently didn’t save the first time and the whole thing got deleted. I’m going to try to replicate my pretty good blog post, but we’ll see what happens!

I came into this week knowing next to nothing about accessibility and adaptive/assistive technology, so I have really struggled with the discussion board because everything is so new to me. I don’t have a lot to interpret. Everything I could think to post seemed to just regurgitate what I was reading. However, I do feel like I have learned a lot that can be applied to future professional settings.

Let’s look at the Janet Hopkins article from 2004, “School Library Accessibility: The Role of Assistive Technology.”

I found Hopkins’s implication that special education teachers may not know the technology they can use with their students kind of insulting and unlikely. These teachers have gotten specialized degrees to best serve their students, and I am sure that they at least enter the profession knowing the technology that will best serve their students.

Having said that, school librarians have a role to play in helping students with disabilities foster a love of reading and give them the ability to do research and learn throughout their life. Finding AT for their students is part of fulfilling that role because it allows their students more independence and ability to reach goals. This also helps you become a specialist in different, less traditional way, which could help with job security. The AT you find can help students outside of the library by boosting their self-confidence and helping them learn how technology can assist them in other aspects of their life. It allows them to interact with their peers more, limiting social isolation. By being with other kids without disabilities more, acceptance and awareness among the general student population will develop. This can be really rewarding for a school librarian.

Hopkins presents 10 ideas that can help the school librarian learn about and use AT:

1. Find out whether special education students use the library. If not, how can you get them to? When I was doing some observation this semester, I watched a boy with a full-time aide use the library. It was at first unclear whether the student was with the class that was using the library or if he was there on a free period. He was loving exploring the books and picking some to take home. At one point, he started to get upset that a book he loves had been moved over the summer and he couldn’t find it. It was eventually found - phew! It did turn out he was with the class but didn’t sit with them for the read-aloud. Did he need that time to just explore and have some alone time? Or is there some way that he could have been included?

2. Reaching out to faculty who may have experience with AT makes sense. By combining your knowledge with theirs, you might hit on the right tool for a specific student. According to Robyn, a lot of technology is less expensive than it used to be and is probably being used more. It’s good to know what is already in use so that you can make your library more welcoming.

3. It's sensible to tour your library and see if you can think of ways to get rid of barriers. You may have to wait to see how people use the space, though, because you can’t predict how people with various disabilities will need to use it.

4. For professional development, it helps to even just keep an eye on presentations at conferences you plan to attend anyway to see if there will be anything about accessibility.

5. I’m not sure about the idea of having a focus group on AT. When do people have time to go to a focus group? If it meets, say, once a year for people to present their findings from the past year and discuss shortcomings, that seems plausible. But something that meets, say, every month might be too much.

6. I have nothing to add to the idea that school librarians should play around with AT built into their computers other than duh, please do that.

7. I wonder if grants for AT generally get given primarily to schools where special education is the focus? If so, you may need to find nontraditional grant sources. Hopkins suggests tapping into the special education parent advisory committee in her 2006 article. If you are lucky enough to work in a district with a robust PAC, they are fantastic allies. Parents are often the student’s best advocate, and if they know that you have tech, they can help direct students your way. Or if they know you are looking for funding, they may be able to help you with that.

8. I’m unsure about the specifics of ADA laws, but if things, physical or digital, aren't accessible, your district could get into hot water. It is a good idea to raise your concerns to administrators so they can be addressed as soon as possible.

9. Free trials of potential tools are very important. Most sales reps are more than happy to let you play with things before you buy them. They want good publicity, and if you buy something without trying it, don't like it, and badmouth it, they're not going to be happy.

10. Information on new technology should be shared widely. It should definitely be shared with the special ed parent group for the reasons given in item #7. You want as many people as possible to know about what you are doing in the library. For that reason, you should offer introductory classes to the technology when you've acquired it. This will allow faculty to use the technology outside of the library, if allowed, or within the library if you are unable to assist a student when they are there. Also, logging daily information on how many people use the AT can be crucial when it comes to future funding or justification for why you need the technology. It also gives you the opportunity to think about if no one is using the technology, why not? Is there really no use for it or are you not publicizing it enough?

It’s also worth noting that by including AT in your library, you are helping to normalize it, which will help destigmatize disabilities and the need for AT. Jones’s interview with Harvard’s Rappolt-Schlichtmann deftly touches on this. If you make AT available or visible to all students, you will make the students who really do need to use it feel less awkward.

This post is definitely shorter than the original, but I’m not sure what I missed!

via GIPHY