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

Part2:Country studies

Canada

Library and user group data

Prevalence of visual and print impairment

Based on the Statistics Canada Health and Activity Limitation (HALS) survey, there are about 3,000,000 people (10% of the Canadian population) with some form of perceptual disability, with 600,000 of those experiencing some degree of vision loss.

According to the Canadian Library Association’s report Opening the Book:

“By the year 2026, one in five Canadians will be a senior citizen and twenty-six percent of those seniors will be blind or have low vision. This expanding population will drastically increase the number of Canadians who rely on access to information in alternative formats.”

Geographical variations

There may be a slight increase in vision loss among First Nations people (due to diabetes), who are located in specific geographic areas within Canada.

Public libraries, numbers, growth and funding

There is no national survey of libraries in Canada, though the Canadian Urban Libraries Council compiles data on its member libraries. Public library numbers are thought to be growing.

One analysis of these statistics showed that these urban libraries served a mean population of 244,000, had 133 FTE staff (12.71 per capita of the served population) and had 5.6 visits per capita in 2003.

In Canada, libraries are provincially and municipally funded. Some provinces will have adequately funded libraries, others will be under-funded. Services have expanded but in some systems, budgets have been cut back. They are well used ? public libraries are cited as one of the top 3 public services valued by Canadians.