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Archive for the 'disabilities' Category

Serving Patrons with Autism

Published by rwatstein October 25th, 2008 in libraries, library services and disabilities. 0 Comments

The Scotch Plains (N.J.) Public Library and the Fanwood (N.J.) Memorial Library have produced a customer-service training video for library staff to help them serve individuals with autism and their families more effectively. The video focuses on what you need to know about autism and suggests specific techniques to offer more inclusive service to this growing and underserved population. Their Libraries and Autism site also has links to other useful resources.

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China Opens Digital Library for the Blind

Published by rwatstein October 19th, 2008 in China, libraries, digital and disabilities. 0 Comments

A digital library for the blind, where the visually impaired can listen to electronic books, music, or online lectures for free, has opened in Beijing. Situated in the National Library, the facility was jointly set up by the Information Center of the China Disabled Persons’ Federation, the National Library, and China Braille Publishing House. It opened October 14, on the eve of the International Day of the Blind.

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What the Web Looks Like to the Color Blind

Published by rwatstein August 31st, 2008 in web sites and disabilities. 0 Comments

Here is a Web site that shows you what various Web pages look like to people who have different types of color blindness. This is no small issue. Consider how many people are looking at the Web sites you worked so hard to design, and they do not see anything like what you put up there. The site says: In the U.S. 7 percent of the male population — or about 10.5 million men — and 0.4 percent of the female population either cannot distinguish red from green, or see red and green differently. Color blindness affects a significant amount of the population, and it is even more prevalent in more isolated populations with a smaller gene pools. It is mostly a genetic condition, though it can be caused by eye, nerve, or brain damage, or due to exposure to certain chemicals.

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New Technologies are Not Serving People with Disabilities

Published by rwatstein July 12th, 2008 in innovation, technology and disabilities. 0 Comments

Web technologies and mobile devices have created many new ways for sight and hearing-impaired consumers to find information and connect with friends. But as entertainment and communications tools increasingly take digital form, some people with disabilities feel left behind. Online videos are not required to have captions, for example, and ticker-style emergency messages are not narrated

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Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped Named Network Library of the Year

Published by rwatstein July 5th, 2008 in libraries and disabilities. 0 Comments

Carnegie Library of Pittsburghs Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (LBPH) has been named Network Library of the Year by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, a department in the Library of Congress. This highest honor is given for exemplary library service to readers whose visual or physical disabilities prevent use of standard print. A framed certificate and an award of $1,000 were presented to LBPH at a ceremony in Washington, DC. LBPH will also display a traveling plaque until the next recipient is chosen.

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Library Takes ‘Talking Books’ Digital

Published by rwatstein March 16th, 2008 in libraries, Library of Congress, disabilities and audiobooks. 0 Comments

Judith M. Dixon, a clinical psychologist by training and a sophisticated techie by avocation, is helping to lead the Library of Congress into the digital age. Dixon, 55, who gave up university teaching 27 years ago to join the library’s National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, is a key player on a team that has been working for the better part of a decade to create a new generation of audiobooks for the library’s more than 700,000 registered blind and disabled users.

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Bloomsburg U Tailors Online Learning to the Deaf

Published by rwatstein December 1st, 2007 in education and disabilities. 0 Comments

“We’re making it possible for deaf and hard of hearing people to have equal access to information via the Internet.” That’s according to Samuel Slike, an instructor and curriculum coordinator of the Education of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing Program at Pennsylvania’s Bloomsburg University. Last semester, Bloomsburg began using Wimba’s Live Classroom, a Web-based learning tool, to offer deaf and hard of hearing students an online course that includes a sign-language interpreter and closed-caption text to accompany the standard slide presentation and instructor’s voice.

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A Talking Library for the Blind

Published by rwatstein December 1st, 2007 in libraries and disabilities. 0 Comments

Libraries are silent zones and it is no different at Farook College near this Kerala city. But sometimes in its quiet ambience you may hear a voice reading aloud in English in an accent that is not native. Don’t be perturbed - it is the Digital Talking Book Library.

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