Making Public Libraries Accessible to People with Learning Disabilities (Dyslexia)

Making Public Libraries
Accessible To People With
Learning Disabilities (Dyslexia)
By Chittaranjan Nayak
Ph.D. Research Scholar, Dept. of Library and Information Science, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India
Guest Faculty, DLIS, Mahatma Gandhi Central University Bihar, Motihari, India.
“Librarians Can Change a Child’s Life”
Dyslexic
Brain

Overview
Introduction & Objectives of the Study.
What is learning disability (dyslexia)?
Public library services to dyslexic people.
Conclusions & Suggestions

Introduction
 Information is essential to all human beings,
and public library’s aim is to provide the right
information at the right time and in the right
format to its users regardless of race, religion,
age, nationality and language.
 This core function includes the provision of
information to people with disability.

Objectives
This study aims to propose possible strategies of
meeting the information needs and use of public
libraries by people with learning disabilities.
Specifically, the study aims to achieve the following:
following:
 To create awareness to librarians in public libraries
about people with learning disabilities (dyslexia).
 To identify possible barriers that could affect
dyslexic people’s library use.
 To establish how the public libraries can improve

Learning Disability
o Learning disability refers to a heterogeneous
group of disorders manifested by significant
difficulties in the acquisition and use of
reading, writing, reasoning or mathematical
abilities.
o These disorders are intrinsic to the individual
and presumed to be due to central nervous
system dysfunction.

Learning Disability With Psychological
Processes
A learning disability is a disorder with a basic
psychological processes which involve the
understanding in using language, spoken or written,
that may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to
listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or do
mathematical calculations, including conditions such
as perceptual disabilities, brain injury, minimal brain
dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia (an
inability to comprehend or formulate language because of
of damage to specific brain regions).

Learning Disability: Not a Problem With
Intelligence
A learning disability or learning disorder is not a
problem with intelligence, however, learning
disorders are caused by a difference in the brain
that affects how information is received,
processed or communicated.

Incidence of Dyslexia: A Common Type of
Learning Disability
 Dyslexia is the most common learning disability, and
nearly 70%-80% of students diagnosed with LD have
deficits in reading.
 It has a worldwide incidence of 5-20%. The
incidence of dyslexia in India is believed to be 15%.
According to the Times of India, Jan 22, 2013, there
are 228,994,454 students enrolled in recognized
schools, which brings the count of dyslexic Indian
children to nearly 35 million.

Causes of Dyslexia
 Dyslexia, also known as reading disorder, is characterized by trouble
with reading despite normal intelligence.
 Different people are affected to varying degrees.
 Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading, writing
words, pronouncing words when reading aloud and understanding what
one reads.
 Often these difficulties are first noticed at school.
 When someone who previously could read loses their ability, it is known
as "alexia".

Causes of Dyslexia
 The difficulties are involuntary and people with this disorder have a
normal desire to learn. People with dyslexia have higher rates
of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), developmental
language disorders, and difficulties with numbers.
 Dyslexia is believed to be caused by the interaction of genetic and
environmental factors.
 Some cases run in families.
 Dyslexia that develops due to a traumatic brain injury, stroke,
or dementia is called "acquired dyslexia".
 The underlying mechanisms of dyslexia are problems within the brain's
language processing.

Signs and Symptoms of Dyslexia
 Dyslexia is a spectrum disorder with symptoms ranging from mild to
severe. People with dyslexia have particular difficulty with
phonological awareness, verbal memory, rapid serial naming and verb
processing speed.
 Signs of dyslexia usually become apparent when a child starts school
and begins to focus more on learning how to read and write.
 A person with dyslexia may:
 read and write very slowly
 confuse the order of letters in words
 put letters the wrong way round (such as writing "b" instead of "d")
 have poor or inconsistent spelling
 understand information when told verbally, but have difficulty with information that's written down
 find it hard to carry out a sequence of directions
 struggle with planning and organization

Pre-School Children
 Delayed speech development
 Speech problems, such as not being able to pronounce long
words properly and "jumbling" up phrases (for example,
saying "hecilopter" instead of "helicopter", or "beddy tear"
instead of "teddy bear").
 Problems expressing themselves using spoken language,
such as being unable to remember the right word to use, or
putting sentences together incorrectly.
 Little understanding or appreciation of rhyming words,
such as "the cat sat on the mat", or nursery rhymes.
 Difficulty with, or little interest in, learning letters of the
alphabet.

School Children (5-12 Years of Age)
 Problems learning the names and sounds of letters.
 Spelling that's unpredictable and inconsistent.
 Putting letters and figures the wrong way round (such as
writing "6" instead of "9", or "b" instead of "d").
 Confusing the order of letters in words.
 Reading slowly or making errors when reading aloud.
 Visual disturbances when reading (for example, a child may
describe letters and words as seeming to move around or
appear blurred).

School Children (5-12 Years of Age)
 Answering questions well orally, but having difficulty
writing the answer down.
 Difficulty carrying out a sequence of directions.
 Struggling to learn sequences, such as days of the week or
the alphabet.
 Slow writing speed and poor handwriting.
 Problems copying written language and taking longer than
normal to complete written work.
 Poor phonological awareness and word attack skills.

Phonological Awareness
Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize that
words are made up of smaller units of sound
(phonemes) and that changing and manipulating
phonemes can create new words and meanings.
 A child with poor phonological awareness may not
be able to correctly answer these questions:
 What sounds do you think make up the word "hot", and are these different
from the sounds that make up the word "hat"?
 What word would you have if you changed the "p" sound in "pot" to an "h"
sound?
 How many words can you think of that rhyme with the word "cat"?

Word Attack Skills
Young children with dyslexia can also have problems
with word attack skills. This is the ability to make
sense of unfamiliar words by looking for smaller words
or collections of letters that a child has previously
learnt.
 For example, a child with good word attack skills
may read the word "sunbathing" for the first time
and gain a sense of the meaning of the word by
breaking it down into "sun", "bath", and "ing".

Teenagers and Adults
The symptoms of dyslexia in older children and adults can include:
 poorly organized written work that lacks expression (for example, even though they
may be very knowledgeable about a certain subject, they may have problems
expressing that knowledge in writing).
 difficulty planning and writing essays, letters or reports
 difficulties revising for examinations
 trying to avoid reading and writing whenever possible
 difficulty taking notes or copying
 poor spelling
 struggling to remember things such as a PIN or telephone number
 struggling to meet deadlines

Associated Problems
Some people with dyslexia also have other problems not
directly connected to reading or writing.
These include:
 difficulties with numbers (dyscalculia)
 poor short-term memory
 problems concentrating and a short attention span, including Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
 poor organization and time management
 physical co-ordination problems (Developmental Co-ordination
Disorder, also called DCD or dyspraxia)

Types of Dyslexia
There are several variations in the categorization of the
term dyslexia. However, Carlson (1998) has suggested
two major types as follows:
 Developmental Dyslexia: it is caused by biological
usually genetic, in the brain at various levels (i.e.
morphological or synaptic) from prenatal through
childhood development.
 Acquired Dyslexia: it is caused by brain trauma that may
occur prenatally or later, which leads to similar behavioral
characteristics of developmental Specific Learning
Disabilities (SLDs).

Common Types of Learning Disabilities
 Dyslexia: It means difficulty in processing language. It is characterized by problems
of reading, writing, spelling and speaking.
 Dyscalculia: It means difficulty with mathematics. It is characterized by problems
doing mathematics problems, understanding time and using money.
 Dysgraphia: It means difficulty with writing. It is characterized with problems of
handwriting, spelling and organizing ideas.
 Dyspraxia (sensory integration disorder): It means difficulty with fine motor skills. It is
characterized by problems of hand-eye coordination, balance and manual dexterity.
 Auditory processing disorder: It means difficulty hearing differences between
sounds. It is characterized with problems of reading comprehension and language.
 Visual processing disorder: It means difficulty in interpreting visual information. It is
characterized with problems of reading mathematics, maps, charts, symbols and
pictures.

Role of Public Libraries for People with
Learning Disabilities
 The contemporary public library is the most economically
efficient community resource for providing people of all
ages and educational levels with ready access to information
and knowledge.
 It is expedient for public libraries to be proactive in nature
and make the library conducive and have services to suite
the dyslexic who are also part of the population of any
society.
 The public library is a service institution and public library
buildings must be adequate both in design and space in
order to facilitate the rendering of that service.

Role of Public Libraries for People with
Learning Disabilities
 In order for public libraries to provide relevant and meaningful services
and facilities to people with dyslexia, there must be an awareness of the
problem of dyslexia by the staff, there must be an understanding of their
needs, and the problems they may encounter while using the library
services and facilities.
 Hence, the library staff should strive to meet the needs of their various
user communities. Libraries should have laid down strategies so as to
help users no matter their disability.
 It therefore behooves librarians to make sure that persons with learning
disabilities (including dyslexia) do not have difficulties in accessing and
using library materials when they visit the library.

Library Services to Dyslexic People
 There must be an awareness of the problem of Dyslexia by
the librarian,
 There must be an understanding of their needs, and the
problems they may encounter while using the library services
and facilities.
Extended Services: extended loan periods,
 waived late fines,
 extended reserve periods,
 library cards for proxies,
 books by mail,
 reference services by fax or
email,
 home delivery service,
 remote access to the OPAC,
remote electronic access to
library resources,
 volunteer readers in the
and radio reading service.

Library Collections
 Library materials must be accessible to all users include people
with disabilities.
 Materials must be available to individuals with disabilities in a
variety of formats and with accommodations, as long as the
modified formats and accommodation are “reasonable” do not
fundamentally alter the library’s services, and do not place an
“undue burden” on the library.

Assistive Technologies & Auxiliary Devices
 Speech recognition software: This allows users to dictate or talk to a computer that uses software to
convert this to text. This is clearly of interest to individuals that might otherwise have difficulty with
spelling or writing emails, reports or other written communications.
 Text-to-speech (Speech Synthesis) software: This allows individuals to understand written material they
are presented with and to proof-read or check their own work.
 Mind mapping software: This is specifically designed to allow dyslexics to plan their work more
effectively.
 Scanning software and hand reading pens: These allow the user to store and listen to the text found in
books and other documents.
Speech Recognition Software Speech Synthesis Software Mind Mapping Software Smart Pens and Scanner
Google Now

Assistive Technologies & Auxiliary Devices
 Spell checkers that are specifically designed with dyslexia in mind to automatically make corrections to
written communications.
 There are smart pens that can be used to write text, but which track the text being written and recreate
the notes in digital form. The pen can then upload the text to a smart phone, PC or tablet to allow further
processing or electronic distribution.
 Computer based learning programs. These are specifically written for dyslexics and can help to
sharpen their skills in reading, writing, touch-typing and numeracy.
Spell Checker Smart Pen Computer Based Learning

Challenges of Providing Information Services for Persons
with Learning Disabilities by Public Libraries
 Inadequate funding of public libraries,
 Lack of awareness about available technology,
 Lack of qualified personnel to handle people with
learning disabilities,
 Inadequacy of appropriate reading materials.
 Problem of reading and understanding, confusion
about signage/arrows indicating location, problem
of communicating with staff and unwillingness to
declare their status as being dyslexic.

Conclusions and Recommendations
i. Public libraries should introduce special user education programmes for the people
with learning disabilities to educate them on their information needs and how to go
about meeting such needs.
ii. Public libraries in India should embrace the qualitative and modern library services to
the people with learning disabilities to enable them meet up with the challenges of the
new era.
iii. Indian Government should ensure that all public libraries are adequately equipped
with the necessary resources that will meet the information needs of all categories of
persons regardless of their disabilities.
iv. There should be a section for people with reading disabilities and it should be
attractively designed.
v. Public Library should provide talking books to dyslexic persons. Talking books could
be on tapes, cassettes, or new digital formats.

Conclusions and Recommendations
vi. Public Libraries must not discriminate against individuals with disabilities and
should ensure that people with learning disabilities have equal access to library
resources.
vii. There should be posters in conspicuous places in the library which carries
campaign in support and help of dyslexics. This would make the library
welcoming to them and give some form of comfort.
viii. Adequate funds should be provided to public at the state and local branches to
enable them procure all needed materials for this group of users.
ix. Adequate and qualified personnel should be employed and tasked with the
responsibility of handling the information needs of the people with learning
disabilities.

References
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References
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Mob: +91-8116676472/9474698359; E-Mail: prof.crnayak@gmail.com

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