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Funding and governance of library and information services for visually impaired people: international case studies

Part2:Country studies

UK

What is driving change?

There was agreement that a series of initiatives and campaigns from the voluntary sector have been the major drivers for changes, plus public library standards (though opinions differ as to the importance of the latter):

“Library standards, Framework for the Future, Revealweb, Share the Vision, Gateway project, Make a Noise in Libraries. More awareness of need amongst public libraries, probably due to legislation and lobbying by Right to Read Alliance, NLB's practical initiatives etc.”

“The establishment of STV in 1989 as a campaigning partnership between the voluntary sector organisations which produce and lend alternative formats and the main bodies for publicly funded libraries has been a major factor in improving these services overall. The DDA 1995 gave added impetus to STV's campaign. We would cite the following STV initiatives as major developments which have enhanced service provision for visually impaired people:

• Library Services for Visually Impaired People; a manual of best practice. http://bpm.nlb-online.org
• Revealweb: the National Database of Materials in Accessible formats. www.revealweb.org.uk
• Gateway Project www.gateway-uk.org”

Other respondents suggested that legislation has been a driver:

“Legislation has changed the parameters of service provision, this means that services have to be provided however they may be sourced directly or outsourced to specialist organisations to provide an indirect service. Greater collaboration is expected.”