1. Nancy Bolt Stephen Wyber Marie Engberg Eiriksson
Library Service to People with Disabilities International Federation of Library Associations MEDD Expert Group December 13-14, 2017
Nancy Bolt
Stephen Wyber
Marie Engberg Eiriksson

2. IFLA Mission and the SDGs
IFLA is the leading international body representing libraries and their users.
Active participant and supporter of Marrakesh Treaty
Publishes guidelines and position papers on issues related to access to information
Publishes guidelines and standards on library service to people with disabilities

3. History of the survey Requested by Mrs. Ito to conduct survey
Survey developed in spring/summer of 2017
Issued in the fall
Distributed widely but not a formal random sample
IFLA officers and general mailing list
English using surveygizmo
Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and French in MSWord

4. Purpose of the Survey
To determine the assistance provided by libraries to people with disabilities.
To determine if there is a national law giving rights to people with disabilities
To determine the awareness and activity of libraries related to the SDGs, Marrakesh Treaty, and CRPD

5. Type of Questions
National approval of SDGs, CRPD, Marrakesh Treaty; local awareness
Library policies and services
National Libraries
Library Associations
Individual Libraries
Public
Academic
School
Special

6. Number of responses Total responses, partial and complete 636
Usable responses
Total countries
Overall response, percent of useable responses
National libraries % 28 countries
Library associations % 34 countries
Individual libraries
Academic % 41 countries
Public % 23 countries
School % 11 countries
Special (includes other) % 31 countries

7. National Law on Disabilities
Number of national libraries reporting:
Country has national law 23 libs 69%
What the national law covers
Accessible facilities libs %
Accessible resources libs 100%
Equal access to resources,
programs, and services 20 libs %
Provide funding for programs 18 libs %

8. Comments on Funding and Programs
Per ruling, 1% of the total budget of any government agency should be used for PWDs services, programs and facilities. (Philippines)
There are several Decrees of the Russian Ministry of Culture on Library services and support for the disabled persons, as well as a "road map.“ (Russia)
The National Library of Sri Lanka conducting various type of awareness programmed for librarians regarding the serving for disable readers in the country. (Sri Lanka)

9. Has Your Country Approved the CRPD or Marrakesh Treaty?
Many didn’t answer or didn’t know
Comments such as:
Russia's accession to the Marrakesh Treaty aims to broaden these individuals' opportunities to access books, magazines, teaching aids and textbooks that have been created under special formats and to facilitate international exchanges of these publications. (RUSSIA)
We are hoping that this will soon be ratified on the basis that, we are already providing equal access to PWDs with all the local disability laws/policies that we have even before Marrakesh treaty. (Philippines)

10. National Libraries Number with accessible
policies or guidelines 22 libs 66%
Physical accessibility libs 45%
Resource accessibility libs 42%
Services and programs 14 libs 42%
Provide standards/guidelines 9 libs 27%
Consulting to other libraries 12 libs 32%

11. National Library Comments
The National Library of Sri Lanka conducts various type of awareness programmed for librarians regarding the serving for disable readers in the country
The National Library of Angola is operating in adapted facilities to to the needs of people with disabilities. It provides technical and methodological support to libraries including access by people with disabilities is inserted.
The Sign Language eLibrary of Finland receives its funding from the state budget. We can use the funding: 1) maintaining our library´s web site 2) material production (material = videos in Sign Language)
Entire division of NLS devoted to Network Library support, consultation, best practices, etc. (United States)

12. National Library Awareness of SDGs
Number saying aware 18 libs 55%
Action
Endorsed libs 21%
Planned activities 10 libs 30%

13. SDG activity
Collaboration with public library association, university libraries association, and high school libraries on communication about the SDGs under umbrella of Fobid (the Dutch International Library Association)
The Russian State Library is an official UN repository library and has a special reading room for all events related to the UN activities
The National Library of Sweden has spent 2 years working on a National Library Strategy. The initial report of this work contains a chapter showing our association with the UN Agenda In addition the National Library of Sweden is active in IFLA sections and working Groups and is thereby involved in a number of the UN 2030 sustainable development goals.

14. Library Associations Number with accessible policies or guidelines
At association conferences 23 libs 48%
To resources, services, and
programmed libs 46%
Assistance to other libraries in the country
20 libs 42%

15. Library Association Activities
We have Interest Groups on serving people with Alzheimer's, hearing impairment, visual impairment, incarceration (both youth and adults), and universal access. Many of these groups publish guidelines. (USA)
Northern Territory Library has recently released "Connected Communities: a vision for Northern Territory Public Libraries ". This document, along with the Arts and Museums Disability Inclusion Action Plan, provides an opportunity to better engage with and collaborate with the public library sector. (Australia)
IFLA has guidelines on library service to people with dyslexia, people who are deaf or hard of hearing (being revised); prisoners, people with dementia (being revised), and people who are blind and visually impaired.

16. Library Association Awareness of SDGs
28 libs (58%)
If yes
Endorsed – 17 (61% of those aware)
Planned activities – 20 (71%)
Aware but no action – 11 (39%)

17. Individual Libraries Disability Policies
Policy
Academic
Public
School
Special
Local Policy on Accessibility
84 (73%)
72 (43%)
4 (13%)
30 (38%)
Physical accessibility
96 (83%)
155 (93%)
27 (13%
65 (79%)
Equal access to resources, progs, and services
58 (50%)
140 (84%)
7 (23%)
39 (53%)
Special services for people with disabilities
83 (72%)
127 (76%)
15 (50%
49 (67%)

18. Individual Library Disability Services
Academic
Public
School
Special
Deaf
42 (37%)
82 (49%)
5 (27%)
24 (49%)
Blind
62 (54%)
125 (75%)
5 (17%)
36 (73%)
Mobility
69 (60%)
103 (62%)
6 (20%)
35 (71%)
Dyslexia or other learning disability
33 (29%
64 (38%)
12 (40%)
18 (37%)

19. Services Related to the SDGs
Academic
Public
School
Special
Employment
13 (11%)
42 (25%)
5 (17%)
10 (14%)
Job training or education
15 (13%)
54 (32%)
6 (20%)
14 (19%)
Health information
43 (37%)
76 (46%)
21 (29%)
Access to technology
57 (50%)
88 (53%)
26 (36%)
Training on using technology
33 (29%)
56 (34%
17 (21%)

20. Other services Service Academic Public School Special
Special budget to serve people with disabilities
15 (13%)
17 (29%)
4 (13%)
19 (26%
Special outreach effort
52 (45%)
122 (73%)
10 (33%)
39 (53%)
Collect data
24 (21%)
29 (17%
5 (17%)
24 (33%)

21. Individual Library Awareness of SDGs
Activity
Academic
Public
School
Special
Aware of SDGs
52 (46%)
58 (35%)
5 (17%)
44 (60%)
Endorsed
16 (30%
6 (10%)
3 (7%)
Plan activities related to SDGs
11 (19%)
1 (2%)
Aware but no action
32 (60)
51 (88%)
38 (86%)

22. Academic Libraries: What Our Respondents Said
We have a very old building (1904) and not all parts of the building are wheelchair accessible, only the main parts. We provide paging services to pull materials from the stacks (to all people, universal design, and from all stacks, not just those that are not wheelchair accessible) (USA)
My library is very well equipped for people with physical disabilities; there are several elevators and ramps in the Library. The library shelves are laid out in accordance with international standards and there is a adequate distance between the aisles, study tables, and other library furniture. (Turkey)
We have rooms in every campus library with assistive technologies (Australia)
We also work very closely with the Disability Services Offices on campus for students as well as faculty and staff (USA)
Most of the above services are provided by our Disability and Careers services. I provide one-to-one inductions to disabled students and try to ensure that they can access the support available (UK)

23. Public Libraries: What Our Respondents Said
We offer special needs programs, we now have a special needs committee dedicated to all things special needs, Talking Books/Connections - staff; materials. (United States)
It is important for us to ensure that all programmes are accessible - and not create special ones for people with disabilities (Denmark)
We are continually looking for ways to include persons into the library's projects and events. (Israel)
We work closely with local schools and non-profit community organizations who specially serve disabled to help with planning and to promote our services. (United States)
We have trained 265 children with special needs on how to use tablet computers in in our project supported by Electronic Information for Libraries (Kenya)
We offer work experience/shadowing. We are looking at additional services next year Offer inclusive workshops (New Zealand)
I have an list for the local groups for people with disabilities and I communicate with their leaders when I have planned something their groups would be particularly interested in, or was designed for them. (United States)

24. More from Public Libraries
Our plan is to introduce the library as an "Economic Enabler." Partnerships with other Institutions will be conducted to equip the community with skills needed for employment or work. One of the target clients are the PWDs. To date, we are now working to profile PWDs in the Community and looking for other resources needed to train them such as computers and other technology designed to aid them. Special programs includes disaster risk reduction for PWDs, Digital Literacy, e-Government Services and Workforce Development. (Philippines)
Each library has some adaptive technology kits, though they tend to lean toward visual disabilities. We have some workstations that are helpful for people with wheelchairs, access to interpreters for programs, and a partnership with a nonprofit that provides job training and career exploration skills for adults with disabilities. We are currently looking at improving our services to patrons with autism. (United States)

25. School Libraries: What Our Respondents Said
For example, the teacher-librarian got the funding from the Equal Opportunity Commission and the support from the Hong Kong Society for the Blind to publish braille with printed text storybooks for the use of the blind, visually impaired and normal vision students. (Hong Kong)
Our library Teacher-Librarian got professional training on SEN as a school coordinator. Students with disabilities have the priority to join school library programs, projects, and events. Extra manpower is made available to help people with disabilities whenever necessary. (Hong Kong)

26. Special Libraries: What Our Respondents Said
The organization has employment, and adaptive technology services for clients. The library does provide assistance with adaptive tech, especially playback devices and apps. (Australia)
Besides our regular library services we offer a broad range of events to our print disabled users. And they participate not just as the audience members but as participants as well. But we insist on making it open for larger audience because we don't approve of ghettoization of persons with disabilities. (Croatia)
We were part of a pilot programme in collaboration with the Blind Foundation to provide access to e-audio books to people with disabilities. This included providing our customers with an iPad, free of charge. (New Zealand)

27. Conclusions
Libraries can play a significant role in helping people with disabilities get access to information and services.
Libraries need to be made aware of CRPD the Marrakesh Treaty in order to take action to support them and better serve people with disabilities.
Many libraries are unaware of the SDGs but serve people with disabilities as part of their regular service policy.

28. IFLA Resources
Access and Opportunity for All: How Libraries contribute to the United Nations 2030 Agenda
Development and Access to Information, 2017
The Marrakesh Treaty: an EIFL Guide for Libraries

29. Contact Information
Nancy Bolt, Nancy Bolt & Associates, USA Stephen Wyber, IFLA Manager of Policy and Advocacy, Netherlands Marie Engberg Eiriksson, Librarian and coordinator of outreach services, Gladsaxe Bibliotekerne, Denmark