Articles
Index
- Making Libraries Accessible for patrons with Learning Disabilities
- Are you a student with a disability having High School exit exam woes?
- Nothing About Us Without Us
- Learned Helplessness and School Failure by Robert and Myrna Gordon
- Tedium Management
Making Libraries Accessible for patrons with Learning Disabilities
People with Learning Disabilities (LD) account for an estimated 17 to 20% of the general population. Print based materials and environments can offer many barriers to this population, which makes library a challenge. In spite of this, libraries can be a wonderful resource for people with all disabilities as they offer many resources and services. The barriers that people with learning disabilities encounter are not just specific to LD. Through addressing the needs of people with LD will help all library patrons.
This resource is a result of a collaboration with the Oakland library, East Bay Learning Disabilities Association, and the California State LSTA grant and in consultation with Lisa String of the Skills Center and Nina Ghiselli, Psy.D., Vice president of EBLDA. This site will help your school or public library address the needs of users with LD. It will discuss in detail the barriers patrons with LD encounter, how to address these issues, and a system to accommodate the Dewey Decimal system, including a download of icons to be used in your library.
Why do people with Learning Disabilities have a difficult time in the library?
A learning disability is a neurological difference in the brain that impacts how someone processing information. This difficulty processing information can impact how some reads, writes, follows directions, orients themselves in time and space, and ???. As a consequence of these difficulties, the library offers particular difficulties for the patron with LD. These might include:
- Copying call letters and finding books using the Dewey Decimal System.
- Following directions from a helpful librarian when they are unsure where to find a book.
- Access materials that fit their reading and interest level.
- Returning books in a timely manner.
- Accessing community resources to find out where to get support for their LD.
- Using standard computer technology
As a result of these difficulties children and adults with LD are not as likely to use libraries.
What can Libraries do to help?
By implementing the principles of universal design (UD) and addressing specific needs of the LD community not only help people with LD, but help all library patrons. The principle of universal design comes from the field of architecture that makes the environment as useable as possible for all people. Through addressing the needs of people with disabilities, everyone’s needs are met. Curbcuts is a perhaps the best illustration of UD. Curbcuts are the ramps built into sidewalk curbs that allow wheelchair users to easily access the sidewalk when they cross the street. Although curbcuts were intended as an accommodation for people who use wheelchairs, everyone is able to benefit including people pushing a baby stroller, someone using a hand truck or having difficulty walking. This same concept can be applied to nearly anything. By making it accessible for a person with a disability allows access to everyone.
Libraries can make use of this same principle to address accessibility in the environment and in the services they offer including customer service. To address the difficulty that library patrons with LD face in accessing the library, Oakland Public Library has developed a series of icons to help users navigate the selves. As a result of the LSTA grant, creative work of Shelby Design and Illustrates, and innovation of Lynne Cutler, Disability Advocate of Oakland Public Library these icon can be accessed online free.
Other links for Learning Disabilities and libraries
- Oakland: Library icons help those with learning disabilities navigate the shelves
- Roads to Learning
- LD Resources at the San Lorenzo Public Library
Do you have something to share about library access or how your library has implemented the Oakland Library Pictograms? Please share your story with Nina Ghiselli at DrGhiselli@yahoo.com.
Are you a student with a disability having High School exit exam woes?
Are you worried that youll never pass this exam and that you wont get your diploma? Are you being tested on material you have never been taught? Do you have an IEP or Section 504 plan, but you arent being allowed to use the accommodations that you need on the exit exam? Are you confused by the waiver process?
You are not alone. An expert panel appointed by the legislature recommended that the state delay use of the Exit Exam for students with disabilities because they have not been prepared. However, the legislature has not acted on the expert panels recommendations.
It is illegal to administer this high stakes exam, testing students with disabilities on material they have never been taught. We want to put a stop to it. The LDA-CA is involved in class action litigation to protect the rights of students with disabilities. All students with IEP or Section 504 plans who are required to pass the Exit Exam are represented in this litigation brought by Disability Rights Advocates, a non-profit law center in Oakland, CA.
If you would like to discuss problems you or your child are having on the California High School Exit Exam please call or e-mail Susan Prior at Disability Rights Advocate at(510) 451-8644 or email to sprior@dralegal.org.
Nothing About Us Without Us
- Mini-Conference on Adult Issues
- October 29, 2005, 9am-3 p.m.
- Includes a networking lunch!
- Concord Hilton, 1970 Diamond Boulevard, Concord, California
- Seating is limited!
- Only $30!
Presenters and topics:
- Dale Brown, author of Job Hunting for the So-Called Handicapped, key note speaker:
- Learning A Living-Finding A Job and Planning A Career for People with Learning Disabilities: Using your strengths to be a top-notch job candidate
- Finding Friends and Persuading People: Crack the code and learn the hidden rules. This will be a participation-oriented, action packed session.
- Ben Foss, JD, film maker and executive director of Initiative for Learning Identities
- HEADSTRONG: The Insider Story on working with Dyslexia and Attention Deficit Disorder. Will include movie and panel discussion with the film's stars.
- Nina Ghiselli, Psy.D., psychologist in private practice and chair of adult issues for LDA-CA, is the facilitator of this one day conference.
Bios of speakers:
- Dale Susan Brown is an adult with LDs, who works in Washington D.C. as an author, speaker, and strategic leadership consultant. Her most recent book, Job-Hunting Tips for the So-Called Handicapped or People who have Disabilities, was coauthored with Richard Nelson Bolles, author of What Color Is Your Parachute? She has written three other books; Employment and People with Learning Disabilities, I Know I Can Climb the Mountain and Learning A Living, A Guide to Planning Your Career and Finding A Job for People with Learning Disabilities, Dyslexia, and Attention Deficit Disorder. She was active within Learning Disabilities Association of America, serving on the Board of Directors as the representative of adults with learning disabilities and chairing the Adult Committee. She p! layed a key role developing national and state infrastructure to serve adults and advocate for them in Washington D.C. She has spoken at over one thousand national, state, and local conferences and symposia regarding people with disabilities.
- Ben Foss founded Initiative for Learning Identities in 2003. He has dyslexic and was in special education throughout elementary school. Ben holds a JD/MBA from Stanford and works at Intel Corporation as a lead investment negotiator for the firm's Mobile Platform Group. Before graduate school, Ben worked for the White House National Economic Council and for the Children's Defense Fund in Washington, D.C. He was also a Marshall and a Truman Scholar.
- Nina Ghiselli, Psy.D., is a psychologist in private practice in Hayward, California. She also teaches courses at U.C. Berkeley Extension, Alliant International University, and Heald College. Dr. Ghiselli consults with schools and agencies on how to make their programs more accessible for people with disabilities. She is the Chair of Adult Issues for LDA-California and East Bay LDA, and is an adult with LD.