Dear Accessibility Advocates:

My thought is that as many people as possible should become familiar with
and be trained to use  assistive technology [AT], with people/patrons who
currently need the technology to do their [library] work having top priority
in their use. The requirement that to use the equipment, one must be signed
up formally with the campus Accessibility Office seems an antiquated point
of view, that also promotes discrimination against and misunderstanding
about people who represent [what I call] the diversity of doing things
differently = all of us, sooner or later.

When you consider that the need for AT could happen to any or all of us at
any moment (one just has to accidentally slip and fall while crossing the
street [on green at the crosswalk]  as I did today), the more people who are
aware of AT and accessibility solutions - the better life would be for all
of us.

Even if we tend to want to deny it, we as a global population are rapidly
aging, making AT a more frequent and often necessary part of our everyday
lives. (And what would we do today without AT such as "Post-It-brand Notes,"
cell phones, escalators and elevators, telephones and e-mail, library
bookcarts and step stools, etc.?)

Excellent customer service being a tenet of our profession, all
library/information center staff, including all student assistants, need to
be trained in using AT, also for a most practical reason: we never know who
will be on duty when a patron asks to use the AT workstation, equipment, or
software.

-------------------------

Ellen Perlow
[log in to unmask]



>From: "McCraw, Jackie" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: EASI's Library Accessibility Discussion List
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Community members using a university library's accessible res
>             ources
>Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2004 17:48:43 -0400
>
>Hi,
>
>My only thought would be that (1) some training should be provided, (or,
>even with all the access tech in the world, the library remains
>inaccessible) and 2. Could the library make a "getting started" guide on
>tape for people with different disabilities - i.e., one for learning
>disabled, one for visually impaired, one for blind folks, with similar
>material but modified to fit the particular disability?  Then a staff
>person
>would not have to always be available to train people individually.
>
>- Jackie
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Sage, Robert D. [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2004 2:31 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Community members using a university library's accessible
>resources
>
>
>Hi,
>
>I was wondering if anyone had any experience with community members using a
>university library's accessible equipment?  Our university's Disabled
>Students Services (DSS) is creating a center in the library with a number
>of
>accessible workstations.  DSS trains our students with disabilities to use
>the equipment, but our library is also open to the general public and DSS
>is
>not responsible for those users.  DSS is also not located in our library
>and
>not open the same amount of hours as the library, so it's kind of difficult
>to get someone from there to help out.  I am the library's liaison to DSS
>and I have some limited training in using the equipment but I have nowhere
>near the kind of experience necessary to help out someone who has never
>used
>the equipment before.  Does anybody have any suggestions?  Thanks.
>
>
>Rob Sage
>Reference/Instruction Librarian
>Pollak Library 106
>California State University, Fullerton
>(714) 278-4057
>[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
>
>
>
>

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