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

Part2:Country studies

Canada

Services to print impaired people in relation to services to visually impaired people

CNIB’s collection is available directly to people with vision loss, and through community partnerships, is available to the larger print-disabled community. It launched the Visunet Canada Partners Program in 1999 that offers libraries and library consortia the opportunity to access the CNIB Library collection for an annual fee to serve members of their community who are unable to read print for reasons other than a visual impairment.

CNIB believes that services will start to be more closely integrated into the same program and strategy. The service will start to move more into community libraries, whether public, school or academic. There will be challenges. CNIB have been told by both the patron and the library staff person that it is more challenging to provide services to people who have an “invisible disability” such as a learning disability. There is less understanding and staff training in place to provide an inclusive and welcoming service for these prospective patrons. Non-vision related print disabilities are not as well known in some sectors and therefore service is not always provided.

Access technology requirements seem similar, but are actually quite different for people who have a print disability other than vision loss. There are some differences in format preference (a learning disabled person would not want Braille).

There is some funding available for free DAISY players for printimpaired people, but this is not universal; the situation varies in different parts of the country.