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28 Fall 2015 • Children and Libraries
The Census Bureau reports that 5.2 percent of school-
age children (2.8 million) were reported to have a
disability. The American Community Survey defines
a person with a disability as a person having a “vision, hear-
ing, cognitive, ambulatory, self-care, or independent living
difficulty.”1 Per the American Community Survey, the most
common type of disability diagnosed in school-age children
is cognitive disability, which they define as “serious difficulty
concentrating, remembering, or making decisions.”2
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act uses a specific
definition for a child with a disability, and entitles them to a
“free and appropriate public school education” while they are
aged three to twenty-one.
Child with a disability means a child evaluated . . . as having
intellectual disability, a hearing impairment (including
deafness), a speech or language impairment, a visual
impairment (including blindness), a serious emotional
disturbance . . . , orthopedic impairment, autism, traumatic
brain injury, and other health impairments, a specific
learning disability, deaf-blindness, or multiple disabilities,
and who, by reason thereof, needs special education and
related services.3
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, stu-
dents with disabilities accounted for 6,481,000 public school
students in 2009–10, with the most common type of disability
being a “specific learning disability” (4.9 percent), followed by
“speech or language impairments” (2.9 percent), and “intellec-
tual disability” (0.9 percent). The number of students with dis-
abilities in US public schools has increased from 8.3 percent of
total enrollment in 1976–77 to 13.1 percent of total enrollment
in 2009–10.4 However, while school libraries are legally obli-
gated to serve children with disabilities, public library services
to children with disabilities are less well-coordinated and more
reliant upon individual choices. We wanted to see if there were
any common reasons why libraries add programs for children
with disabilities, and if there were common experiences from
which other librarians could learn.
Denice Adkins is an Associate Professor in the School of Information Science & Learning
Technologies, University of Missouri. She is a past-president of REFORMA, the National
Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking
and a current ALA Councilor-at-Large. Her research interests are library services to Latinos,
especially Latino and non-English-speaking youth. Bobbie Bushman is a PhD student at the
School of Information Science & Learning Technologies, University of Missouri. She worked
as a youth services manager in a public library where she ran programming for all ages
and abilities. Her research interests are library services to children with disabilities and library service to deaf and hard of hearing
children.
A Special Needs Approach
A Study of How Libraries Can Start Programs for Children with Disabilities
DENICE ADKINS AND BOBBIE BUSHMAN
Fall 2015 • Children and Libraries 29
A Special Needs Approach
Literature Review
Much of the literature on serving children with disabilities
comes from school library–oriented sources. However, public
libraries are also active and creative in providing programming,
materials, and services for children with disabilities, includ-
ing general programming, special needs storytimes, collection
building, and technological and other assistive approaches.
Cynthia A. Robinson and Frances Smardo Dowd surveyed
libraries about general services to children with disabilities in
1997. They found that 27 percent of libraries had programming
aimed at children with disabilities, 25 percent of their library
respondents offered summer reading clubs for children with
disabilities, and 17 percent offered puppet shows using “Kids on
the Block” puppets designed to specifically represent children
with disabilities. Other programs included crafts, games, and
storytelling for children with disabilities.5
More recent articles describe successful programs and imple-
mentations at individual libraries or systems. However, these
articles have some commonalities. The Library Services and
Technology Act (LSTA) is a key source of funds for public librar-
ies increasing their services to children with disabilities. Grant
funds are used for program development, staff training, and
purchasing materials, including books and computer worksta-
tions with adaptive technology.6 Libraries are also partnering
with volunteers for program staffing and advertising programs
at local children’s services agencies.7
Programming techniques used by public libraries have
included adapted board games and video games, retelling
stories with puppets, using sensory stimulation, and incor-
porating play into programming.8 Staffing for programs is an
issue: one library used volunteers to reach a 1:1 staff-child ratio,
while others deliberately keep programs small and focused.9
Accommodations have taken the form of having mats for
defined individual space and having children hold weighted
dolls to help with fidgeting, using large books with clear pic-
tures, and converting digital texts into alternative formats for
children’s particular needs.10
Methodology
We used a survey distributed to a broad audience of public
libraries to determine what services were being provided,
and used phone interviews to hone in on the personal stories
behind programming for children with disabilities. Surveys are
a common method to obtain descriptive data from a relatively
large population, and the survey method has previously been
used to learn about library services for children with disabili-
ties.11
Our survey was distributed to a sample of medium- and large-
size public libraries in the United States. This library size was
chosen to ensure both that libraries would have a reasonable
chance of having children with disabilities in their service
population and that they would have resources available to
provide for those children’s needs. We downloaded the data
file for the 2010 Public Libraries Survey from the IMLS website
and limited our choice to the 540 libraries in the fifty United
States and the District of Columbia with service populations of
one hundred thousand or more. We sent our survey to 185, or
approximately one-third of those libraries.
We designed our survey based on other surveys and literature
about library services to special needs children. We pretested
the survey with some public librarians who were not in the
sampling frame, refined the survey, and pretested again with
a different children’s librarian who was also not in the sample
frame. Survey questions asked what types of disabilities were
found in the library’s child populations and which ones librar-
ians were called upon most often to accommodate, whether the
library offered separate or mainstreamed programs for children
with disabilities, how the library’s programming for children
with disabilities was initiated, whether librarians had the
opportunity to attend training to provide services to children
with disabilities, and what challenges librarians had faced in
implementing programs for children with disabilities.
Librarians who had more to say were invited to contact us,
so that we could learn more about the process of providing
accommodations to children in public library programming.
We conducted five semi-structured qualitative interviews, each
interview taking thirty to sixty minutes. We had some starter
questions, but were interested in what the librarians had to
tell us about the details of starting and maintaining a program
with accommodations. All interviews took place approximately
two months after the distribution of the survey, after which we
coded for themes and commonalities.
Results
Four weeks after our survey request was sent out to 185 librar-
ies, we had thirty-nine responses, plus an additional handful
of e-mails from libraries indicating that they did not offer
specialized services for children with disabilities. This 22 per-
cent response rate was surprising because those who did
answer the survey were very responsive and seemed eager
to discuss the services they offered. Two months later, we
interviewed six librarians from five different libraries about
the services they provided to children with disabilities. These
interviews put a personal face on the delivery of programs for
children with disabilities.
What Disabilities Are Present in the Child Population?
Survey respondents reported disabilities in their child popu-
lations as speech or language impairments (35), autism (33),
mental retardation (31), hearing impairment (28), orthopedic
impairment (26), and visual impairment (26). Autism was the
most prevalent disability and the disability librarians were most
frequently asked to accommodate. The second-most common
30 Fall 2015 • Children and Libraries
A Special Needs Approach
accommodation request was for hearing impairment. Typically,
though, multiple disabilities were present in the child popula-
tion served, and our respondents were not able to specialize
in programming designed to accommodate only one type
of disability. Each of our interviewees talked about various
kinds of disabilities present in their child communities, visible
impairments such as blindness or wheelchair use, and invisible
impairments such as autism or chemical dependency at birth.
Children’s Programming
Thirty-seven of the thirty-nine respondents indicated that their
library provides mainstreamed children’s programming such as
storytime, summer reading program, and crafts programs, open
to children with and without disabilities. Fifteen respondents
said their library offered separate programming for children
with disabilities, and some respondents indicated that they
would do programming “upon request” when a parent or care-
giver for a group of children with disabilities requested it.
Our interviewees talked about what they did to adapt programs
for children with special needs. Using music is a popular choice.
Carla Kirby of Rapides Parish Library in Alexandria, Louisiana,
said, “Music has never failed me. We do a lot of songs with
movements and motions.” Tammy DiBartolo, also of Rapides
Parish Library, said, “We read a lot of books. Humor tends to be
the most popular, and any repeating book that has a response
that they repeat back to us.”
Kirby noted that implementation was “trial and error. Sometimes
I would read a book that didn’t go over so well. But you know
what? Sometimes that book does work for the next group. It’s
really about getting to know your groups, and that’s a process.”
The librarians indicated working with teachers and aides to cus-
tomize programs for each specific audience. Sheila Dickinson
of Richmond (CA) Public Library said, “If there was someone
who couldn’t use their hands, I would do a different kind of
finger play, maybe a whole body activity.” Adrienne Gardner
of Hunterdon County (NJ) Library said, “Sometimes we have
students who don’t want clapping or don’t want singing, and it
all depends. If it’s just one student, the teacher might take the
student out and we’ll still do the activity. Other times, if there’s
more, the teacher will tell me at the beginning and we just won’t
do those activities.”
Elizabeth Zuelke of the Public Library of Cincinnati and
Hamilton County (OH) told us about special programs their
libraries were doing including Autism Night Out, which allows
families of kids with autism to visit the library after hours, in a
private situation without the pressure of feeling they might be
distracting the library’s traditional clientele. Their department
was also developing sensory kits for Sensational Storytimes,
to appeal to multiple senses during storytime. Zuelke said that
sensory storytimes “are great for kids who have a lot of different
types of special needs, and yet they’re something that other kids
can attend as well.”
Sometimes programming doesn’t go well, as Kirby shared.
During a storytime, she began making growling noises as part
of her storytelling. The growling noises got a child with special
needs overly excited. Kirby recalled, “He lurched at me and bit
me on the arm and wouldn’t let go.” She said it took the child
more than a year to return to the library because of embarrass-
ment.
Kirby said, “I’ve learned from that, I need to know . . . are voices
going to be too intense for some of them? Is some of the music?
Is clapping?”
Initiating Library Programs for Children with Disabilities
Twenty-five librarians responded on how their library started
programs for children with disabilities. Fifteen said that the
children’s department and the librarians themselves had
started offering these programs, while another nine indicated
that these programs had been requested by parents or caregiv-
ers. Most respondents (25) indicated that their library had not
done a community analysis, so it seems children’s librarians are
themselves seeing the needs in their communities.
Our interviewees gave us a more personal perspective on how
their library services got started. Sometimes it was a personal
connection. One of our interviewees noted that her library
director had a child who is wheelchair-bound, and she had
a son with Attention Deficit Disorder. These family circum-
stances made the issue of services for children with disabilities
stand out for her. That led them to develop their children’s
programming and to expand it to developmentally disabled
adult groups. Adrienne Gardner of Hunterdon County (NJ)
Library noted the presence of a politically active teenager in the
community who worked to make sure the library and the high
school were doing all they could to comply with the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Frequently, however, the initial impetus came from a parent’s or
teacher’s request. While Gardner’s building had been remodeled
to ensure compliance with ADA, programming started when
the local school’s autism program brought students over to the
library for a visit. DiBartolo said, “We kept having special needs
groups come in, and there was no real service for them, so we
started doing a storytime.” She also indicated that they made
it a goal to increase outreach to special needs groups. Zuelke
gave a different answer: “[The Public Library of Cincinnati and
Hamilton County has] provided services for special needs kids
for more than fifty years. Our administration is proud of the fact
that we have such a long history in this area.”
Marketing
In survey comments, two respondents mentioned a fear of low
turnout for these programs, and two others mentioned that it
was hard to get the word out about these programs. By con-
trast, interviewees indicated that they had attracted significant
Fall 2015 • Children and Libraries 31
A Special Needs Approach
audiences for their programs for children with disabilities.
Zuelke noted that she had three outreach librarians who spent
the school year doing nothing but programs for special needs
children and teens. Their history of providing special needs
services has worked in favor of that high service use; they have
connections to multiple associations in the Cincinnati area that
refer parents and teachers to the library’s services. She named
eight agencies off the top of her head that the library was work-
ing with, and indicated that there were others.
Several survey respondents worked with local public and pri-
vate schools, including the special education departments of
those schools, and preschools and Head Start schools in their
communities. Some worked with schools dedicated to serving
children with disabilities, such as state schools for the blind.
Many worked with state or community agencies such as Autism
Centers, Disability Alliances, and Deaf Services Centers. One
person indicated working with a Diabetes Camp, while another
worked with the YMCA camp. One librarian indicated work-
ing with a local college program in American Sign Language.
Another reported making children’s programs available at the
hospital.
In interviews, DiBartolo and Kirby said their connections were
primarily through care centers asking if the library could pro-
vide any services to their clients. Kirby said, “Once the word
spread that we were doing special needs programs, they just
started calling more and more. Now we rarely go a month
without a new school or special needs facility calling us.” They
mentioned that they had expanded their programming to
include developmentally disabled adults when they realized
that audience was ignored by groups doing adult programming.
Dickinson of Richmond Public Library said she started out
doing storytimes for special needs kids at a Head Start daycare
facility near a library branch, before encouraging the class to
come to the library for storytime. She was also contacted by an
early childhood school to speak to their special needs classes
and parents, and now she does a special storytime or library
visit for that school once or twice a year.
Another concern was the difficulty of advertising programming
for children with disabilities in a sensitive fashion. One librarian
commented, “It’s tricky to promote programs for children with
disabilities without stigmatizing it at the same time.” Most of
our interviewees indicated working directly with special needs
classes or agencies serving children with disabilities. They
advertised their programs through those connections.
Equipment
Thirty-three respondents provided specialized equipment for
children with disabilities. Audiobooks, large print books, talk-
ing books, and Braille books were most commonly provided,
and about half of the libraries provided computers with assis-
tive technology. Three provided Kurzweil readers. The “other”
category indicated the variety of needs seen in children’s
programming. Respondents mentioned videophones, American
Sign Language software, headphones for children who need
them, film captions and sign language interpreters, sensory and
tactical items, and items to ensure the comfort of the children
who participated in programs. However, one respondent noted
that the high cost of adaptive resources meant they could not
offer as much as they would like.
Two of our interviewees noted that they had special funds for
programming for special needs children. Zuelke described a
dedicated library trust fund specifically for providing services
for children with disabilities. “Over the last several years, we’ve
been buying special seating, special games and puzzles, things
like switches so they can press to participate [instead of verbal-
izing], sound-deafening headphones, calming devices. We buy
all these things in the Outreach Department, and they’re avail-
able to our branch libraries if they have special needs children
attending their programs,” she said. “We used some of our
money last year to put together sensory kits. We’re unveiling
those later in the year for Sensational Storytime.”
Because they have that trust fund, they tend not to apply for
grants for special needs children’s services. Cheri Crow of
Montgomery (MD) County Public Library had applied for and
gotten grants to provide services for children with disabilities.
The grant allowed her library to purchase specialized computer
equipment as well as some American Sign Language interpre-
tive services for programs. “Unfortunately, once the grant isn’t
around anymore, most of our libraries don’t have the funds to
continue those programs.”
Challenges
Twenty-three respondents reported that a lack of library staff
education was a challenge for implementing programs for chil-
dren with disabilities; twenty-two said that they lacked money,
time, or other resources. Two respondents reported resistance
from library staff, but seven reported resistance from other
patrons. However, two of our interviewees said parents and
children appreciated the integrated experience, using main-
streamed programs as a way to learn about differences and
acceptance. Of her mainstreamed programs, Dickinson said, “It
was good, I think, for everyone [in the program] to be mixed in
together. Sometimes kids would have crying fits, but you know,
that happens with every toddler storytime.”
Regarding library staff education, twenty-one survey respon-
dents said they had attended some kind of training for services
to special needs children, while fifteen had not. When we asked
who had provided the training, the variety of responses sug-
gested that there was no organized agency taking the lead on
this. The most common answer was that training was given by
school representatives, and two indicated that libraries for the
visually impaired had provided some training. Others indicated
that their municipality provided training or that they had par-
ticipated in webinars on the subject.
32 Fall 2015 • Children and Libraries
A Special Needs Approach
Implications
Survey results suggested that children’s librarians see the need
for providing services to children with disabilities and are com-
ing up with ways to fill that need. Our interviews strengthened
that perception, with our interviewees telling us what they
did and how they looked at their communities. Most of our
survey respondents indicated that their libraries had not done
a community analysis. This suggests that children’s librarians
themselves are instrumental in documenting the presence of
children with special needs in their communities, and that
children’s librarians can serve as a conduit between parents and
agencies for children with special needs.
Starting Library Programs for Children with Disabilities
For librarians who want to get started in offering programming
for children with special needs, the first step might be to find
community allies—schools, services, and parents who work
with children with disabilities and who can support the library
in its efforts. These community allies will provide attendees for
programs, and may also provide training in working with spe-
cial needs children and resources or materials for those groups.
Support for outreach efforts is necessary. Many of our librarians
mentioned that they provided these services in classrooms,
hospitals, and various other agencies outside the library. A
librarian who is unable to leave the building may have difficulty
establishing these kinds of programs.
Library and administrative support greatly eased the burden for
children’s librarians. Two of our interviewees were district-wide
coordinators: Crow (District Consultant, Montgomery County
Public Library) and Zuelke (Outreach Services Manager for
the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County). This
district-wide oversight allowed them to provide programs and
services across several libraries, and provided a general support
structure for branch librarians who were faced with new popu-
lations and new challenges.
By contrast, some interviewees were responsible for the entirety
of children’s services in their libraries, without institutional sup-
port for working with children with disabilities and were limited
in the services they could provide.
Flexibility, diplomacy, and an easygoing nature are also key ele-
ments to providing programs for children with disabilities. Our
interviewees indicated that they often had to change program
ideas on the fly. They had to be able to handle children’s peri-
odic outbursts without becoming distracted or flustered, while
at the same time educating others about children’s needs and
limitations.
Education and Support
Autism is the disorder librarians are most frequently called
upon to accommodate, and librarians may wish to focus
their attention and their resources. However, a librarian who
wishes to focus on children with special needs will also want to
broaden her skills to accommodate the needs of children with
other disabilities. Given increases in the population with dis-
abilities, the LIS profession might use these results to develop
a clearinghouse for programs and services for children with
disabilities, documenting the trends in programs that are suc-
cessful, and for which audience they succeed.
If our survey response rate is an indicator, it seems that few
children’s librarians are providing programs for children with
disabilities, but those who do, provide those services with gusto.
Children’s librarians serve as the gatekeepers to the library for
children with disabilities and their parents. Sometimes grant
money or parental involvements were the impetus for program
initiation. Sometimes it was a librarian having a child with spe-
cial needs as part of her personal life. However, it was usually
the library staff who kept the programs going. Their determi-
nation and creativity allowed the programs to thrive. Making
community connections was extremely valuable for successful
libraries. Many libraries did not advertise their programming
for children with special needs to the wider public. Because of
this choice, libraries had to locate and maintain positive rela-
tions with special needs classrooms, schools, group homes,
and the like.
Our interviewees generally had a positive experience in serving
children with special needs. Kirby advised librarians consider-
ing expanding their services to special needs populations, “I
know it may be scary at first to start doing that kind of program.
But just do it and you will not regret it. It’s my favorite thing that
we do at the library.”
References
1. Matthew W. Brault, School-Aged Children with Disabilities
in U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas: 2010, (November
2011), accessed Sept. 13, 2013, www.census.gov/
prod/2011pubs/acsbr10-12.pdf.
2. Ibid.
3. Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of
2004, U.S. Code, vol. 20, sec. 1400, accessed Sept. 20, 2013,
idea.ed.gov/explore/view/p/%2Croot%2Cstatute%2C.
4. National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of
Education Statistics: 2011, (U.S. Department of Education,
May 2012), accessed Sept. 13, 2013, nces.ed.gov/programs/
digest/d11/tables/dt11_046.asp?referrer=report.
5. Cynthia A. Robinson and Frances Smardo Dowd, “Public
Library Services to Disabled Children: A National Survey
of Large Systems,” Journal of Youth Services in Libraries 10,
no. 3 (1997): 283–290.
6. Lisa C. Wemett, “The Building Bridges Project: Library
Services to Youth with Disabilities,” Children and Libraries
5, no. 3 (Winter 2007): 15–20; Kathy Jarombek and Anne
Leon, “Leadership at Its Best: Library Managers Spearhead
Successful Special Needs Programming,” Children and
Libraries 8, no. 2 (Summer/Fall 2010): 54–57.
Fall 2015 • Children and Libraries 33
A Special Needs Approach
7. Peggy Wong and Allen McGinley, “Rated E for Everyone:
Expanding Services to Children with Special Needs,” School
Library Journal 56, no. 12 (December 2010): 22–23; Paula
Burton, et al., “Try It! You’ll Like It! Storytimes for Children
with Special Needs,” ALKI 29, no. 10 (July 2012): 13.
8. Wong and McGinley, “Rated E”; Burton, Olson, and
Patrick, “Try It!”; Jarombek and Leon, “Leadership”; Betsy
Diamant-Cohen, et al., “We Play Here! Bringing the Power
of Play into Children’s Libraries,” Children and Libraries
10, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 3–11.
9. Antoinette K. D’Orazio, “Small Steps, Big Results:
Preparing a Story Time for Children with Special Needs,”
Children and Libraries 5, no. 3 ( Winter 2007): 21–22; Anne
Leon, “Beyond Barriers: Creating Storytimes for Families of
Children with ASD,” Children and Libraries 9, no. 3 (Winter
2011): 12–14; Wong and McGinley, “Rated E.”
10. D’Orazio, “Small Steps”; Leon, “Beyond Barriers”; Karla S.
Krueger and Greg P. Stefanich, “The School Librarian as an
Agent of Scientific Inquiry for Students with Disabilities,”
Knowledge Quest 39, no. 3 (January/February 2011): 40–47.
11. Robinson and Dowd, “Public Library Services”; Poulson,
“Library Programs”; Ross and Akin, “Children with
Learning Disabilities.”