Topic 4: Policies

Updating policies, services and programs are an integral component for creating an inclusive and accessible library environment, but ensuring that your staff is on board is critical to carrying them out. Your staff should be trained to recognize the characteristics of ASD and gain an understanding of the different ways that people with ASD communicate and interact with the world. It is important for staff to understand and practice awareness, tolerance, and acceptance of all library users.

Video Training Resources

This short video developed by Libraries and Autism: We're Connected, a collaborative program sponsored by two public libraries in New Jersey, offers an introduction to ways in which libraries can adapt their space and programming to provide more inclusive programs and services for patrons with autism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9LQDhdaE8g

(You will have seen much of this video in Topic 3: Creating an Autism-Friendly Library). 

Another good video comes from Dimensions, an agency in the United Kingdom that provides support for people with learning disabilities and autism. Dimensions created this video to help train library staff in creating autism friendly libraries: https://youtu.be/BJLbbJW1BpA.

Finally, Rachel Combs, a librarian at the University of Kentucky, created this video for librarians to use for staff sensitivity training on better serving individuals with disabilities: https://youtu.be/Fm-qob9auyU.

How might these videos be used to help your staff improve their skills for serving patrons with ASD? What are some other tools you could employ to teach these lessons?