Information 520
Final Project: Adaptive Technology for Visually Impaired Patrons in Delaware County, Pennsylvania
Winter Quarter 2011-2012
Gail Dornenburg
Executive Summary
The Delaware County Library System proposes a program aimed at providing visually impaired and blind patrons with adaptive technology. As the library patron population ages, many patrons are losing their sight and therefore, the ability to access print materials like books, magazines, and newspapers. New technology provides these patrons with the opportunity to continue to use these resources in a new medium: digital e-readers. By using e-readers, print disabled patrons are able to independently enlarge font sizes or choose a read-aloud option for any downloadable book, newspaper, or magazine. By buying e-readers for library use, visually impaired patrons will be able to access print information that they are currently unable to use.
Setting
Community
This imitative will focus on the Delaware County Library System, located in the western Philadelphia suburbs. There are twenty-six public libraries in this system, varying in size and population need. This proposal will focus on approximately one-third of the libraries in this system, including: Marple Public Library, Haverford Township Free Library, Media-Upper Providence Free Library, Newtown Public Library, Ridley Park Public Library, Ridley Township Public Library, Springfield Township Library, Swathmore Public Library and Middletown Free Library. These libraries are centered within a 12-mile radius, and share many of the same population and neighborhood characteristics.
Largely, the community population in Delaware County is 55 years old or older. According to the Delaware County Census Bureau data, 47.9% of the population is 55 years old or older (“Delaware County Census Data”, 2011). While Americans in other age brackets also suffer from vision loss, older Americans are drastically more prone to the disability. According to the Centers for Disease Control, one in six Americans age 70 or older suffers from vision loss, and that number doubles when people are 80 years old or older (“National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), 2010). As of 2010, almost 2% of the population in Pennsylvania suffered from some form of vision loss, and within that group, 46% is 65 years old or older (American Foundation for the Blind, 2012). These statistics demonstrate the clear need for support of Americans suffering from vision loss, and Delaware County specifically needs to focus on its largely aging population.
Libraries
These nine libraries are all part of the Delaware County Library System. As a group, they offer a variety of services to the senior population of Delaware County, including: homebound book delivery, online book renewal, large print books, audio books, and online access to the Free Library of Philadelphia’s Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. More recently, the Delaware County Library System has also started offering free access to a selection of e-books and audio books, downloadable from home with a patron’s library card. While this service is new, it is popular, and gaining momentum in the community quickly (D. Gaeta, personal communication, March 2, 2012).
Patrons
While the Delaware County Library System serves a diverse group of patrons, the libraries devote a significant chunk of programming time to children and senior citizens. Currently, senior citizens are the largest percentage of patrons in Delaware County, and they enjoy using the neighborhood public library system (“Delaware County Census Data”, 2011).
Staff
Each library employs its own director, professional staff, support staff, and volunteers. Each of the libraries employs approximately five to twelve people, who range in job responsibilities from collection development, to teen library support staff, to web director. While staffing varies from library to library, staff members and volunteers are enthusiastic and helpful (Haverford Township Free Library, 2012).
Statement of Need
The Delaware County Library System needs to better support senior patrons as their vision begins to fail. Currently, vision impaired patrons are able to listen to a small selection of audio books, or read a large print book. As more senior citizens become unable to read regular print books, they become limited to a smaller and more out-dated selection of library materials. Without screen magnifiers in many libraries, senior patrons are unable to enlarge downloadable books on the computer as well. Newspapers and magazines are another medium which they are unable to use; often, newspaper and magazine print is smaller than book text. Many retired senior citizens rely on traditional print materials such as books and newspapers, but without resources to accommodate their failing vision, find that they can no longer access these resources.
In order to adapt, some senior patrons have purchased e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble Nook, or the Apple iPad. Using e-readers, senior patrons can enlarge font or have books read aloud to them from the device. The Delaware County Library System now offers free e-book and audio book downloads, which helps to support this developing trend. However, this requires that patrons purchase their own e-readers.
While the availability and affordability of e-readers is growing, many senior citizens living off a fixed income still find them out of reach financially. Not only do they need to purchase their own device, which can be several hundred dollars, but they need to buy the downloadable books as well. The e-book program that the library system currently offers helps to lighten the financial burden by providing free downloads, but the selection is limited and often does not include bestsellers or other popular books. Furthermore, the libraries do not offer any newspaper or magazine subscriptions for patrons to use. As a result, the current system is beginning to reach senior patrons, but is not yet fully developed.
Proposed Program
Overview and Goals
As a test group for the whole library system, the nine libraries mentioned above need to improve the way they provide e-book and e-reader services in order to reach vision impaired patrons. Each library should have its own small collection of e-readers available for use inside the library building for patrons to use. Each library would only need a handful of e-readers, probably between three and five, depending on the number of patrons each library serves, patrons would then be able to use the e-readers at the library and enjoy a wider selection of large print books as well as audio books.
In order to make the purchase of library e-readers more usable for patrons, library staff would hold bi-monthly workshops to get patrons started using the new devices. These workshops would demonstrate how to turn on the e-reader, set the font size or audio level, download materials, and begin reading or listening. Many senior patrons are unfamiliar with technology, so it is important to hold regular workshops and have staff members available to answer questions.
At the same time, these nine libraries could test-run Library E-Book Accessibility Program (LEAP) provided by OverDrive (which is currently the library system’s e-book provider). This program is a partnership between OverDrive and Bookshare which provides free one-year trial for visually impaired library patrons (OverDrive, 2011). According to the program outline, LEAP provides visually impaired patrons with access to OverDrive and Bookshare’s collections, which include over 125,000 e-books, audio books, newspapers, and magazines. If successful, the libraries could pay for future subscription to the program, and/or recommend the program to the other libraries in the system.
The goals for this program would be to provide print disabled patrons with adaptive technology that will allow them to access print materials in the library. Furthermore, the library staff will need to become familiar with the technology and be comfortable teaching workshops and helping patrons with using the e-readers. Visually impaired patrons will have a new method of acquiring information, and a strong support system to meet any new technological and informational needs.
Materials
In order to implement this program, the nine libraries would need between three and five e-readers per library. For visually impaired patrons, the Amazon Kindle DX is the most user-friendly because of the larger screen and touchable buttons. Many other e-readers, such as the Barnes and Noble Nook, Apple iPad, and other models of the Amazon Kindle utilize touch screens, which would be difficult for blind or visually impaired patrons to navigate. The Kindle DX, however, has a large screen that allows patrons to enlarge the font while still getting more than a few sentences on each page. It also has a read-aloud feature for blind patrons, and buttons of varying sizes so that the visually impaired are able to feel the differences between button size and function. In total, the nine libraries would need between 27 and 45 Kindle DXs to serve its print disabled population (“Amazon Kindle DX”, 2012).
Planning and Schedule Outline
In order to successfully implement the program, librarians and volunteer staff would need to be trained in how to use the Kindle, how to troubleshoot any problems, how to use the OverDrive LEAP program, and how to download items from the computer workstations to the e-readers. Once the libraries have received their e-readers, the library staff would need between two to three weeks to learn about the devices and plan effective workshops. At this time, the e-readers could be available for use if patrons feel comfortable using them without the workshop tutorial first.
After a few weeks, the library staff would set up a workshop schedule to be posted in the library, on the library website, and on the library system’s home website. The varying branches should try to schedule their workshops at different times so that patrons could choose between time slots to allow for higher levels of participation. The workshops should be scheduled bi-monthly, and could build upon previous skills if the same patrons continue to return and are eager to learn more about the devices’ capabilities. Overall, implementing the workshops in this program should begin within two to three weeks of receiving the Kindles, and continue on a bi-monthly schedule thereafter.
Evaluation
In order to judge how useful the e-readers are to visually impaired patrons, patrons would be asked to fill out a short survey after using a device. Upon returning the Kindle to the circulation desk after use, each patron would be given a paper survey to fill out. This survey would be printed using a large font size, or could be read aloud to patrons. It would consist of questions such as “without an e-reader, are you able to read regular print materials?”, “do you use the read-aloud feature in the Kindle?”, “have you attended any training workshops, and if so, what did you learn from them? What would you improve about the workshop experience?”, and “how was the OverDrive book selection? Were you able to find books that interested you?”.
The library staff would then collect the surveys and code the responses for analysis. After the first two to three months (depending on the level of use and the number of surveys obtained), a staff member from each of the nine libraries would code all of the answers, and the libraries would share the responses. This way, the different branches could compare their services to the other branches’ services, and see how successful the program is overall. The staff members could also see which branches are excelling, and which branches are less successful. After the full year trial of OverDrive LEAP, the libraries could again tabulate their survey responses and analyze how successful the program has been in a year’s time. If it is popular and useful, it could be implemented throughout the library system as well.
Potential Budget
1. Approximately 35 Kindle DX e-readers: $379 x 35 = $13, 265
2. OverDrive LEAP program: free for the first year
3. Staff training time: approximately four hours in training and preparing workshops for at least two staff members at each library would cost $27.00 per hour x 4 hours x two staff members = $215 per library ( For the nine library branches, that would cost $1,944 to train and prepare workshops.
4. Staff time for teaching the workshops: if each workshop lasted one half-hour, and each library held two per month, that would total to one hour per library per month. That would cost $27.00 per hour x nine libraries = $243 per month. If the program ran for one year, that would cost $2,900.
Total budget proposal: approximately $18,100
Conclusion
This proposal is aimed at solving the information access problems that print disabled patrons have with library materials. While the Delaware County Library System has a number of resources for these patrons such as large print or audio books, these materials are too limited and do not meet the needs of the senior patrons who are losing their vision. Currently, Delaware County has an overwhelming senior population, and the library system is unprepared to meet their visual needs. By buying Kindle DX devices and setting up workshops throughout the county, these visually impaired patrons would have newfound access to books, magazines, and newspapers. It is critical that the library system reach out to and support this patron population, and purchasing e-readers for the libraries is the most cost-effective and technologically appropriate way to do so.
References
2000 Households with Persons 65 Years Old and Over. (2003, April). U.S. Department of Commerce: Bureau of the Census. Retrieved from
American Foundation for the Blind: Pennsylvania. (2012, January).2010 Prevelence Rates of Vision Loss. Retrieved March 15, 2012, from
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2011, May 17).Occupational Employment Wages: Librarians. Retrieved March 16, 2012, from
Delaware County Library System Digital Downloads. (2012).OverDrive Home Page. Retrieved March 15, 2012, from
Delaware County Pennsylvania: Census Data. (2011, March 9).GIS and Information Services Census Data. Retrieved March 15, 2012, from
Haverford Township Free Library Home Page. (2012).Haverford Township Free Library. Retrieved March 15, 2012, from
Gaeta, D. (2012, March 2).
Kindle DX, Free 3G, 9.7" E Ink Display, 3G Works Globally. (2010). Amazon.com.
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U.S. Census Bureau. (2012, January 17).Quickfacts from the US Census Bureau. Retrieved March 15, 2012, from
Dillon, C., Gu, Q., Hoffman, H., & Ko, C. (2012). Vision, hearing, balance, and sensory impairment in Americans aged 70 years and over: United States, 1999–2006. National Services for Health Center. Retrieved from
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