WebJunction

Thanks so much for sharing ideas and thoughts from Internet Librarian with those of us who aren't able to be there! This is an intriguing idea... and uncharted territory in many ways. I have not heard of library specific projects (yet), but hope others will share some here. I did a little searching and found some interesting articles about mobile technology and people who are blind:
Cell Phones Now Helping to Guide the Blind
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=mobile_devices&articleId=291724&taxonomyId=75&intsrc=kc_feat

Mobile Innovations Available to Deaf...
http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-149867/Mobile-Commerce-and-Vodafone-UK.html

What else have you heard/seen? What's happening in general and how might libraries be able to better serve patrons with special needs because of these innovations?

Brenda

What a timely discussion. I attended Virginia Libraries Association's annual conference last week and facilitated a session titled, "Going Mobile: Keeping the Library and Patrons Together". Lydia Patrick and Bob Bowie were the presenters and work for the Fairfax County Public Library system in northern Virginia. An interesting part of their presentation was reconstructing the Library website to fit on mobile devices -- share necessary content beyond a PC bound environment. Does one provide limited access/data (hours, directions, renewals, etc.), should we limit pop-ups, and how do we manage different browers on various devices. Three areas the presenters thought one might want to stay away from on a mobile device at the moment are: searching the catalog, database searches and lengthy forms. Their view is "bring what's out there, and people are using, into the library" so folks don't simply play with their devices, but use them usefully.

They talked about "twitter" and "pownce", but I didn't follow the conversation too well. If anyone could share with me what these words mean in relation to mobile devices, I'd really appreciate it.

Thx!

Thanks so much for touching on this topic and I'm sorry I couldn't attend the Internet Librarian meeting. I am new to this forum and hope that this information will come in handy to all serving patrons that have varying disabilities and also hope it will bring about some further discussion as well as dissemination to others that are working with this population.

This is a great topic for me to jump in and share some additional resources for all libraries and librarians to learn about some current technologies that are serving individuals with visual disabilities, learning disabilities and other disabilities that keep individuals from being able to access and read print material.

I work for and represent Bookshare.org: http://Bookshare.org , which has been serving the print disabled for about 5 years. We offer online digital books in alternative format that can be downloaded from our site with a completed membership. We function legally under an amendment to the U.S. copyright law allowing non-profits or government entities to serve individuals with print disabilities with alternative books or what we call 'accessible books'. We feel that everyone should have equal access to reading and digital books in accessible format can really close the gap towards anyone that can't read print.

Regarding mobile devices that can aid individuals with varying disabilities such as blindness or visual impairment, there are a variety of such devices available today. Some resources are:
http://Humanware.com, http://bookcourier.com, http://www.freedomscientific.com/
Books that come from bookshare.org can be downloaded and read with a majority of these devices. We work with a number of libraries throughout the nation, however haven't had the staff to implement the outreach that's needed. Some have set up special programs where a patron can check out a digital book from Bookshare.org with a handheld device and bring it back just like a regular print and bound book, very cool!

In addition to this information I wanted to make all aware that Bookshare.org recently received a sizable grant from the U.S. Department of Education to serve all students throughout the U.S. for free. We can serve individual students or work directly with schools or educational institutions serving this community so that they can access our digital book repository free of charge.

I apologize for the blatant plug on bookshare.org, as I am new to this community but am hoping that this information will be helpful to anyone looking for reading alternatives for those with print related disabilities.

Meredith Farkas' book "Social Software in Libraries" has a chapter on the mobile "movement" and its relevance to libraries. It's a good overview and she points to some good resources.

Our staff editor (Sharon Streams) is also working on getting some of the mobile info presented at Internet Librarian posted here at WJ. I'll come back and post here when it goes up.

Thanks Dave for starting the conversation - obviously timely!

Link to more info "http://www.techsoup.org/fb/index.cfm?fuseaction=forums.showSingleTopic&forum=2012&id=70906&cid=117