Building a Collection for Blind Visually Impaired Patrons

Building a Collection for Blind & Visually Impaired Patrons (It’s not as hard as it seems) Jamie Kollar

So, you’ve decided to make your collection accessible to blind and visually impaired members of your community. You probably have a few questions…

• Where can I find books and magazines in Braille? • What technology should I spend my limited funds on? • What online databases should I subscribe to? • What etiquette rules will my staff need to learn to make my patrons comfortable? • What important issues have I not even thought of?

Answering these questions is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and it’s hard to know whether you’ve found the best information. You could find yourself doing a lot of frustrating searching before you even start the process of actually making your library more accessible. Fortunately, I’ve already done that for you…

Accessibility: Serving the Needs of Blind and Visually Impaired Library Patrons collects the best online, print, and video resources in one place.

I’ve taken the most useful recommendations from the Library of Congress, the ALA, and the IFLA, saving you the trouble of searching through page after page of resources for the ones that will help you the most.

With the Accessibility wiki as your guide, you can begin making decisions with confidence, and be one step closer to better serving the blind and visually impaired members of your community.