ALIA Disability hosted a webinar on Wednesday, March 15th, facilitated by ALIA Disability Convenor Amy Rake.

Guests included Ayla Regione from JFA Purple Orange and Dr Jo Kaeding from the University of South Australia. 

Key questions made during the webinar were:

• What IS disability?
• What does it mean to have a disability?
• Can you recognise disability?
• What types of disabilities are there?

Ayla Regione discussed her own experiences and the implications of the medical model vs the social model of disability on people’s lives. Ayla highlighted the impacts of a negative perception of disability and the beneficial changes when the social model is applied. 

Key messages and suggestions included:

• Everyone has a different experience of disability; Ayla encouraged us to ask, ‘What is your story?’ 
• Promote accessibility resources more clearly in our libraries
• Improve staff training in accessibility and inclusivity

Dr Jo Kaeding discussed the questions in the context of her research into print disability in public libraries. She is currently; working on a project with Dr Agata Mrva-Montoya at the University of Sydney. 

Key messages and suggestions included:

• Posed the question, if the EU can do it, why can’t we? (concerning the European Accessibility Act).
• Jo encouraged us to ask questions to our vendors and drive the conversation with vendors for born accessible resources. 
• Jo encouraged us to include a statement in Collection Development Policies about purchasing resources in born-accessible formats where possible.

Key concepts and theories discussed across the webinar included:

• Disability culture and the work of Steven Brown
• Universal design (accessibility should be in the design phase, not retrofitted)
• Social model vs medical model
• Born accessible resources

Suggested documents, resources and tools

• Marrakesh Treaty to facilitate access to published works for persons who are; blind, visually impaired or otherwise print-disabled.
• ALIA Guidelines on library and information services for people with disabilities 
• EU European Accessibility Act   
• Free online tools such as WebAIM, which assess website accessibility

The webinar included a side discussion about more accessible fonts such as Atkins.

References

ALIANational. (2023, March 15th), What is Disability?