Most people will experience a disability during their lifetime. While the duration, visibility, and accommodations for disabilities vary widely, libraries and other public organizations must be equipped to serve disabled people of diverse ages, genders, and races/ethic groups with inclusive and accommodating spaces, services, programing, and policies. 

Because individuals and communities are so different, there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution for planning, and checklists and preplanned activities can only go so far. Instead, this resource is  focused on helping you to build a basic understanding of the following:

• Common disability issues related to libraries as community connectors and anchors
• Disability laws that frequently that impact libraries
• Basic accessibility processes
• Guidance for collaborating in your local community
• Thinking through basic accessibility

If you intend to move through this toolkit one module at a time, it might be helpful to read this introduction first. As you move through each module, you will learn about the diverse experiences and needs of disability communities and disabled people, hear and read words from disability rights and justice workers, thinkers, and activists.  Each module includes reflection points and exercises that will help you think through the some of the mechanics of building more inclusive library spaces and programs. Although this toolkit is primarily focused on working with the community, some of the topics will also touch on issues related to disabled library workers. 

The toolkit also introduces you to prominent people and public discourses among (and about) disabled people online, in literature, and in the news. We encourage you to follow these threads as you branch out into your own learning. We also encourage you listen to, and engage with disabled people in your own community whenever possible, and to work to actively resist the exclusion and discrimination that local public institutions often perpetuate.

Every person who engages with this toolkit starts at a different place in terms of knowledge of disability issues. If you are going through this toolkit with a group, we encourage you to be mindful of what this might mean for all members of the group. Your group is likely to have your own rules for engaging in these types of discussions, but here are a few we suggest:

• This is not unconscious bias training. Unconscious bias training focuses on helping you, as an individual, become aware of beliefs you hold (sometimes outside of your conscious awareness) about specific groups of people. This toolkit focuses on basic literacy about disability issues, accessibility issues, and helps you think through more inclusive planning processes.
• Be mindful of the realities of power among group members, especially when discussing identity. While it might seem like a good idea to have a whole group discussion, it can sometimes be difficult to have an honest conversation with your boss or someone who reports to you.
• Be mindful of disabled staff members’ needs. In these types of discussions, disabled colleagues might feel special pressure to facilitate learning, downplay concerns, or reassure colleagues during these types of conversations.
• This toolkit accepts as a basic value the right of all people to exist, and disabled people’s rights to full participation in their communities. Ableism (and eugenics) are embedded in many of our practices and policies. People in the United States largely treat disabled people’s rights as conditional – they may have rights as long as those rights do not cost nondisabled people too much.  We advise that you pause and reconsider discussions that support exclusion of disabled people solely because of cost or inconvenience.

Finally, this toolkit is only intended to be a beginning. Communities continue to change and grow, and so should we. We hope that we can inspire you to continue to read, listen, learn, and constantly improve.