rightscom

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

Part2:Country studies

UK

Barriers

Respondents agreed that the major barriers to providing good library services to visually impaired people in the UK are:

• Funding;
• Lack of planning and co-ordination;
• Copyright legislation

“The most important barrier in the UK is the lack of a systematic national infrastructure which receives a modicum of planned ongoing public investment. We cannot rewrite history but visually impaired people in the UK are too dependent on charity forbasic services which sighted people receive as of right. Current government thinking is to extend the role of the voluntary sector which would be fine if they paid them to provide these basic services which are so important to the life prospects of young people and quality of life for older people who wish to carry on reading at the same level or even more following the onset of sight loss.”

“The great majority of alternative format reading services in the UK are provided by charities, and the scope of provision is therefore constrained by their ability to raise charitable funds. This is simply not good enough in society that considers itself civilised and compassionate.”

The public library respondent also suggested some administrative barriers:

“Funding is the obvious one although the level of materials actually available for purchase is the other. There are very few material comparatively for purchase to answer the needs of visually impaired people. I would love to be able to make more materials available via ICT and current data protection, ICT procedures in each authority across the country often precludes this. A national policy or indicator would circumvent the often difficult relationships that libraries have with their own local ICT departments or providers.”

Sconul suggested that in addition to funding and copyright there were barriers arising from:

“lack of staff expertise, timelines for service requirements, availability of specialist equipment.”