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

Part I: Summary Report

Key findings

Knowledge and information

Objective comparative measures of performance in providing library services for visually and print impaired people across countries are lacking, whether these concern funding, collection development, penetration of services in the user population or user satisfaction. In many cases, there are no adequate measures of success or user satisfaction even on a non-comparable basis.

Inclusive or exclusive definitions of the user group served

Definitions of the user groups to be served vary from inclusive, based on ability to use conventional print, to exclusive, based on medical criteria of vision loss. Many organizations favour functional definitions over overtly medical ones, and wish to serve anyone who has difficulties reading conventional print. From a scale point of view, it makes sense to have production and services organized to serve the whole population with print disabilities, though obviously not all formats are relevant to each group. However, resources have to match responsibilities and copyright exceptions need to be aligned as well.

Copyright

Copyright restrictions were the most frequently cited barriers encountered by responding organizations, along with funding levels. The major problems are: copyright exceptions are not comprehensive and general enough and organizations cannot pool resources across borders, leading to wasteful duplication of effort.

Structures and governance

Service providers generally prefer to operate within models where there are clear roles and responsibilities, both in terms of government policy-making and funding, and service provision.

It is easier to inform users of where they should go to obtain materials if there is a single organisational structure or a clear apportionment of roles and responsibilities. This should also drive up penetration of services, and one of the main goals of these services is to ensure that people are aware of their existence and find them easy to access.

Models where multiple government departments have responsibilities can result in gaps in provision and a lack of coordination: no-one sees the whole picture. Provision of materials for use in education in particular is often a victim of lack of clarity about responsibilities and the funding to accompany them.

It is obvious that organizations cannot pick and choose models, as if from a menu, because they are constrained by the particular national situation and historical legacy. However, the Canadian example shows that it is possible to adapt other models, by seeing how particular functions in production and delivery (such as those which exist in the 'tiered' models) can be fulfilled by particular organizations in their own countries and formulating a collective roadmap among all the stakeholders (including government) to reallocate roles, resources and responsibilities accordingly. Other countries, such as the Netherlands, have also reallocated roles between central producing organizations and public libraries.

This is obviously not a process which can happen overnight. In some cases, the constitutions of organizations would have to be changed, for example. Reallocation of resources is critical . organizations cannot be expected to take on new responsibilities if the funding is not available.

Funding

Regular government funding is a necessary, but not always sufficient, condition for adequately funded services, as perceived by our respondents.

Relying mainly or purely on third sector funding results in a definite perceived inadequacy of expenditure relative to need (e.g. Australia, UK, Canada), which is not present in most countries with regular government funding (e.g. USA, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden). However, in some countries (e.g. Japan, Croatia) which rely mainly or wholly on government funding, organisations also feel that funding is very inadequate and find it difficult to gain the political leverage to increase it. Controlling for both economic status (South Africa, Croatia) and cultural factors affecting attitudes to disability (especially noted in Korea and Japan), regular government funding produces the best perceived outcomes.

It would seem to be logical that it is easier to deal with the problem of overall funding where the organisations providing services are clearly not competing for money on the basis of providing the same or similar services, nor duplicating effort which would deliver better results if it was combined.

Technology

Technological innovation is a key driver of change, and examples of this have been given again and again by organizations responding to the questionnaire. Technology affects how reading materials are produced (e.g. conversion methods, tools, provision of digital files direct from publishers) and delivered (e.g. print on demand for Braille, direct downloading, streaming, e-book files, flash memory devices, satellite and wireless delivery etc).

It can also enable changes in models of production and service delivery and consequently the roles of organizations as service points.

Technology can therefore to some extent (and the extent will vary considerably from country to country) allow more radical changes of organizational model than would previously have been possible.

It is also clear that if the moment is not seized by all stakeholders, changes in technology in society generally could leave people who are unable to read conventional print no better and possibly even worse off.

Summary

There is a remarkable degree of consensus which emerges in terms of preferred models. With some exceptions, most respondents favour a system of clearly defined and co-ordinated roles and responsibilities, whether these are fulfilled by private, voluntary or public bodies; services funded by governments; and delivered as much as possible via mainstream physical and digital channels.

Recommendations

There is no single "best practice" model for providing library and information services to visually impaired and print impaired users: the situation varies greatly from country to country. However, we have identified a number of common elements that would form the basis of policy and practice when combined in appropriate ways.

Tools for focusing service providers' and their representative bodies' activities

Service providers should make it a priority to improve the level of knowledge and understanding of how well services are performing by developing accurate comparable measures . including measures of the actual experience of users (addressed particularly to: service providers and IFLA).

Organisations representing and working on behalf of visually and print-impaired people should allocate resources to ensuring that equitable provision is seen as an issue of civic or human rights and not as a question of public or private benevolence (addressed particularly to: organizations working on behalf of and representing user groups).

Collaborative approaches by service providers to applying for and using funding appear to maximise benefits for users; competition for limited resources should be eliminated from the funding systems (addressed particularly to: national and local governments, service providers, other funders).

As simple models where responsibilities are clearly defined seem to deliver the most effective provision, stakeholders should urgently investigate opportunities for creating clearly defined roles and responsibilities (addressed to all stakeholders)

Tools for influencing government strategy and policymaking, including at the level of international agreements

The overwhelming view from respondents to the survey was that "as of right" funding was an essential factor in improving the services they could provide. Sustained support should be provided from public funds rather than charitable donations in order to create the equitable provision required by laws or directives (addressed particularly to: national and local governments)

Governments should understand that visually impaired people have specified rights to access the content of published information and that they pay taxes which in part support public library services. Together with other print-impaired readers they represent up to 20% of the population (addressed particularly to: national and local governments)

Governments should provide policy and financial support to all organizations that provide library and information services to relevant user groups in their efforts to create clearly defined roles and responsibilities (addressed particularly to: national governments)

The definitions of visual impairment and print impairment should be based on functional needs rather than medical rules. Experience in the USA suggests that services to visually impaired people can actually benefit from expanding an organisation's remit to serve a broader user group, so this should also be taken into account. In view of this recommendation and of clear demographic trends in most countries also pointing to an expanding user community, resource provisions will need to be re-assessed (addressed particularly to: national and local governments).

Copyright exceptions should be related to functional requirements of visually impaired and print impaired people rather than defined in relation to purely medical definitions (addressed particularly to: national governments, publishers and their representative organizations, the European Commission, WIPO).

Exceptions to copyright should not specify particular formats (e.g. talking books or Braille) as rapid technology change is likely to mean new formats will arise and some existing ones become redundant, and users themselves will want to keep pace with these developments (addressed particularly to: national governments, publishers and their representative organizations, the European Commission, WIPO).

The exceptions to copyright should allow users to choose or create versions in the format that is most effective in meeting their own needs: such decisions should not be made in advance and embodied in the definition of exceptions as this would restrict this important empowerment of users (addressed particularly to: national governments, publishers and their representative organizations, the European Commission, WIPO).

National governments and appropriate international organisations should seek to facilitate the elimination of wasteful duplication of effort by establishing agreements whereby materials made accessible in one country may be used in another (addressed particularly to: national governments, publishers and their representative organizations, the European Commission, WIPO).

Tools for involving content providers and rightsholders

Publishers and service providers should consider how publishers might become more closely involved in making a full range of materials available as early as possible, for example, by making digital files for all content available for conversion. Evidence from the case studies shows that respondents believe this would make provision much more effective (addressed particularly to publishers, their representative organizations and service providers)

Publishers should be encouraged to use some of the efficiency gains arising from technology to support equitable provision by providing a full range of content in alternative formats without price differential as part of their normal line of business (addressed particularly to publishers, their representative organizations, national governments and service providers).

Recommendations directed to:

National and/or local governments

Recommendations numbered 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12

Service providers

Recommendations numbered 1, 3, 4, 13 and 14

Funders other than national and local governments

Recommendations numbered 3 and 4

The European Commission and WIPO

Recommendations numbered 9, 10, 11 and 12

Publishers and their organizations

Recommendations numbered 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14

IFLA

Recommendations numbered 1 and 4

Organisations representing or working on behalf of users

Recommendations numbered 2 and 4