Making Library Services Accessible & Making Library Websites Accessible

Do you feel confident about serving people with all types of disabilities?

Libraries strive to serve everyone, including people with disabilities. Providing accessible services is not only required by law (see the Americans with Disabilities Act), but it’s the right thing to do.

It’s often difficult for library staff to feel fully trained on how to do this effectively. Both your website and your on-site services need to be accessible.

There are many resources on library service to persons with disabilities, and these can take time to read through and understand. When it comes to understanding the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, there is a very large amount of detailed information to become familiar with.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

Solution: an informative and enjoyable self-study tutorial that you can complete in a reasonable amount of time.

It’s designed so that you can complete it bit-by-bit, when their schedule allows. It includes several interactive activities to help make learning stick.

What you will learn:

Part 1: Making Library Services Accessible is for any library staff member. It will help you:

  • Understand the different types of disabilities.
  • Feel empathy for people with disabilities.
  • Know why it’s important to make services accessible.
  • Learn how to provide help effectively.

Part 2: Making Library Websites Accessible is for library staff who are responsible for websites and online services. It will help you:

  • Understand the WCAG principles.
  • Become familiar with the top priority accessibility guidelines.
  • Know how to use accessibility checkers and understand the results.
  • Become familiar with specialized tools for making writing clear, captioning videos, choosing accessible color combinations, and more.
  • Know how to learn more about specific accessibility topics.

Nicole Hennig is an e-learning developer and user experience professional, helping librarians & educators stay current with new technologies. In her 14 years of experience at the MIT Libraries, she won awards for innovation and worked to keep academics up to date with the best mobile technologies. Now she has her own business helping librarians stay current with new technologies. Like most librarians, she is passionate about access to information for all. Librarians who take her courses are becoming technology experts for their communities.

Note: Due to our licensing agreement, this training is only available to PLAN members.

Register here.