School Librarians as Ambassadors of Inclusive Information Access for Students with Disabilities.

Abstract

Many scholarly studies investigating school library services provided to students with special needs primarily address aspects of collaboration with special education (SPED) teachers in an immersed school environment. Scarcely studied are ways that school library programs (SLPs) empower students in schools serving only students with a specific disability (vision impaired, autism, etc.), the challenges SLPs face in these schools, nor the specialized training made available to these librarians to ensure the delivery of efficient services. We formulated this study to determine: 1) the types of facilities, services, and resources SLPs provide to students with specific disabilities in these SPED schools; 2) the technologies that facilitate physical and intellectual access for these students within the school library; 3) the extent to which federal disability guidelines are implemented in the design and delivery of these SLPs; and 4) the specialized training that enables school librarians to better support students with special needs. Our findings suggest that, if adequate pre-service and in-service training is provided and pertinent support is received from outside and inside of school, school librarians, as ambassadors of accessibility, can and do play a highly influential role in empowering students and staff in SPED schools.

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