IFLA Survey on Library Support for People with Disabilities

May 26, 2022

The IFLA Section on Library Services to People with Special Needs invites you to contribute to an initiative to capture new insights and developments on serving library users and community members with disabilities through a survey encouraged by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

• Complete the Survey

New Survey on Library Support for People with Disabilities

Equitable access to information and knowledge lies at the heart of the mission of libraries – and accessibility is a crucial part of it. In 2017-2018, results of a survey on library policies and practices in support of access to information for people with disabilities offered a snapshot of library initiatives in different parts of the globe, and fed into the flagship ‘Disability and Development Report’ by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA).

At UN DESA’s encouragement, the IFLA Section on Library Services to People with Special Needs is now leading an initiative to capture new insights and developments on serving library users and community members with disabilities.

You can contribute to this initiative by responding to a new survey, and sharing your own experiences, insights and perspectives! This modular survey invites respondents to focus on the thematic areas they are most comfortable addressing, including:

• National and/or local government policies setting out the work of libraries to serve people with disabilities;
• The work of their National, State and/or Regional libraries to serve people with disabilities;
• The work of their library association to support and champion accessibility;
• And, of course, their own library’s policies and practices to meet the informational needs of people with disabilities. This can range from physical accessibility of the library building, to resources and materials in accessible formats in library collections, to dedicated library services for people with special needs – in such areas as lifelong learning, employment, health literacy, etc.

We invite you to explore the survey and share insights on the thematic areas to which you’d like to contribute. The survey will be open until 20 June – and we look forward to hearing from you! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with the Chair of the LSN Section, maela.rakocevic.uvodic[at]gmail.com.

You can access the survey via Alchemer, or email us for a downloadable version.

(Via IFLA)