This Summer, it's the return of my online course, "The Disability Community in the Library"! Join me July 11-August 21, 2022. Register by June 27, 2022 for a 10% discount!
Unsure if this course is for you? Need some help justifying this course to your admin? Read on for more information!
The goal of this course is to have students emerge as passionate advocates of the disability community, armed with actionable ways to create and maintain inclusive services, spaces, and collections. Several of my past class members identified as people with disabilities, and they communicated how empowered they were to become self advocates. A former student, Jennifer, wrote in 2020 about all the changes her library was able to make as a result of her involvement in this course. We actually did a preconference together at a state conference!
There is an increasing about of interest in accessible services and programming, and there is even a continuing ed class on designing accessible spaces through UW Madison!
So: how do you know if this class is the right one for you?
My course has some starting places for building accessible spaces, but it is much more about digging into the history of the disability community, examining why accessibility often seems like such a low priority, and challenging yourself and your workplace to work toward being more accessible and inclusive. I am not an expert in PWD except in my own lived experience and through conversations that nondisabled people are not privy to.
If you already have some knowledge about the "why" inclusion is important, and your staff seems ready to welcome disabled people in your library, I would definitely encourage you to take a class on specifically creating accessible spaces.
What this course is:
A deep dive into imbedded beliefs about people with disabilities, and a guide forward to adjust your lens.
A possible way forward. Once you rework your personal framing of PWD (or work on your internalized ableism if you are disabled) through exposing the abled narrative and learning the history of the ADA, you'll: get an introduction to design thinking to support all patrons including disabled patrons and workers; evaluate books for good (okay, decent and not completely harmful. We have a long way to go) representation of disability; and how to start advocating for PWD in your library, including resources to find organizations to partner with in order to create programs and services that will actually be meaningful to PWD.
A support network and access to a disabled perspective you may not otherwise get. Every week, you engage with the material along with your classmates, in the discussion forums. These forums are places for you to explore the material together. I will provide gentle guidance and resources to help dispel misconceptions. As long as the conversations are in good faith and do not break my course's cardinal rule ("The humanity of disabled people, and our right and desire to pursue work in and to patronize public libraries are not up for debate in this course"), they will be carefully considered and responded to with links, information, and personal anecdotes to clarify things.
Some examples of things that have come up in past classes that I probably wouldn't otherwise spend time clarifying are:
-that disabled people are childlike and need to be coddled
-that disabled people are lazy if they don't "overcome" their disability/anecdotes about relatives that "use their disability as an excuse"
-"I can't imagine that happening"/ "that article was obviously an extreme case"
-debunking disability simulations
...and more!
If you're ready to take the leap and advocate for your library as a welcoming space that disabled people can and want to be, it would be great to see you Join me July 11-August 21, 2022.
Need more help deciding if this is for you? Email me at brycekozla at gmail dot com and we can talk it through!
