Nothing About Them Without Them! Finding and Serving People with Disabilities in Your Library

Who are we talking about? In a Census Bureau Survey of Income and Participation (conducted June – September, 2002) 51.2 million people in the non-institutionalized population had some level of disability  18.1% of the population  8.4% of people under age 15  19.4% of people aged 45 – 54  38.4% of people aged 65 – 69  71.7% of people aged 80+ People of all ages, in all racial and ethnic groups and all socioeconomic groups have disabilities.

Potential Users with Disabilities  People who are blind or have vision disabilities  People who have learning differences  People who are Deaf or deaf or hard of hearing  People who have speech disabilities  People who have psychiatric disabilities  People who have mobility or dexterity disabilities  People who have developmental disabilities  People who have disabilities as a result of the aging process

How can we find them?  Yellow Pages Blind & Vision Impaired Services Disabled Person’s Access & Services Mental Health Services Mental Retardation & Developmentally Disabled Services Rehabilitation Services Etc.  Social Services Agency Directories  Public Schools & Community Colleges  Internet Beyond Ramps: Library Accessibility in the Real World

How can all these people help?  Other service providers can help us learn about their clients / our potential users.  Focus groups give us an opportunity to inform consumers, their families and other professionals about what we have to offer and to learn more about accommodations they need to be able to use our services.  Advisory groups help us keep moving forward. Planning Staff training Promotion of our accessibility services

Thank you! For more information – Visit for a list ofwww.infopeole.org bookmarks to organizations and databases tips for providing services and more!  Contact me Marti Goddard