 Good morning and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I'm just getting things situated here. There we go. Good morning. I am your host, Krista Porter, here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Encompass Live is the commission's weekly webinar series where we cover a variety of topics that are maybe of interest to libraries. The show is broadcast live every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. Central Time. But if you're unable to join us on Wednesdays, that's fine. You can always log in. You can always go to our website and watch recordings. And I'll show you at the end of today's show where to see all of those recordings. Both the live show and the archives are free and open to anyone to watch. So please do share with your friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, anyone you think that may be interested in any of the topics that we have that can sign up for upcoming shows or watch any of our archives. We do a mixture of things here on Encompass Live, book reviews, interviews, demos of software and products, mini-training sessions sometimes. Nothing too intense. We only have an hour-long show. But, you know, quickly do things. Really, our only criteria is that it's something library-related, something libraries are doing, something we think libraries could be doing. And the information we want to share with libraries out there, and this is all types of libraries. The Nebraska Library Commission is this Nebraska State Agency for all libraries in the state that is public, academic, school, K-12 school, directional, special museum libraries. We're all across the board. So if you look at our topics and our archives, you will find everything you can possibly think of, I think, out there. We do have some sessions that are Nebraska Library Commission staff that present. These will be things that we are doing here at the Commission for Libraries. But we're also bringing guest speakers, and that's what we have today from Nebraska State Library, not from the Library Commission. Crystal Booker here. She is our new, I think it's a new test. The ADA coordinator for the state of Nebraska for this new ADA test force that we just started up. And she's going to share with us today about how to provide access to people. Basically, we need to know about doing that in Nebraska and the resources that you have available for everything. So I'm just going to handle this to you, Crystal, and let you take it away. You bet. Okay. Thank you. First of all, Crystal, thank you so much for inviting me. I'm super excited to be here. I want to acknowledge the Library Commission for inviting me here. As Crystal said, the ADA coordinator position, I've only been in that position here in the state of Nebraska since June. About a year and a half ago, we short up a statewide ADA task force. And my job is to lead the task force. And one of the many things that I do as the ADA coordinator is I provide training. And so we are going to go through a training this morning. I just want to make sure everyone is clear. The ADA is the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is a federal law. So whether you're here in Nebraska or outside of Nebraska this morning, what we're talking about, right, it should be hopefully good information for all of us across the United States as we are providing the best services possible to our customers. So just so you all know, I am not an attorney. What that means is that if you have specific legal questions about a specific situation at your library, I'm probably going to just recommend that you talk to either your legal counsel or someone there that you work with for that specific legal advice. But I do want you to feel free to ask questions. Chris is going to be monitoring that for me. And so please feel free to ask as we're going through the slideshow. So let's go ahead and just get to it. Basically, I will start my presentations off with the question of why do we care? Why do we care about the Americans with Disabilities Act and why does it matter to us? And just some interesting statistics for us as we kick off this morning to think about is that the United States Census Bureau is reporting that nearly one in five people are disabled. And so that's an interesting statistic. And some of that has to do with obviously our aging population. Most of us are aware that our baby boomers are continuing to age. And so that leads to a various types of physical and mental impairments, which defines a person as disabled. And so because that population is aging, we do have a larger disabled population than say we would have maybe 20 years ago. And another thing to consider that not everyone realizes is that the Americans with Disabilities Act, the ADA was amended in 2008. And that became effective in 2009. And what that did is it expanded the definition of disability. I was wondering about that. Is there more things that we are now acknowledging? Yes. Yes. When the ADA was enacted in the 90s, they had a very narrow definition of disabled. And so what was happening is entities, employers, people were focusing really hard on, oh, you're not disabled. Therefore, we don't have to serve you, accommodate you or make modifications for you. And Congress said, oh, wait, stop, that's not the intention of the ADA. And so that is when the ADA was amended by President Barack Obama at the time to make the term disabled to be more inclusive rather than exclusive. Yeah. So when we're talking about the definition of disabled, we really need to kind of expand who we're talking about and who's going to fit into that term of disabled. So again, as I was saying earlier, I assume baby boomers aging, we have an aging population. We're seeing more people with hearing difficulties, vision difficulties. We're also seeing an increase in physical limitations. Here's an interesting statistic from 2015. Roughly 3.6 million Americans had difficulty walking or climbing stairs. That means they used a wheelchair, a cane or crutches or a walker. And I touch on that because I think sometimes those physical limitations are easy for us to understand. We can comprehend it. We can see it. We can even sometimes put ourselves in that position. So then we understand that. But can you imagine 30.6 million Americans are experiencing that in their lives? So again, the disabled population is very large. So why do we care? Because we truly are looking at a very large population that we are attempting to serve. So next slide here. There we go. So what is the Americans with Disabilities Act? I've already touched on it just a little bit. It is a federal law. The Americans with Disabilities Act is actually divided into sections, which are actually called titles. And so as we go through this morning's training, we are going to be focusing mostly on what we call title two. Title two is the part of the ADA that requires governmental entities to have an ADA coordinator like myself. It also requires governmental entities to serve all citizens. In other words, we need to make sure that all of our facilities, our programs, our services, our policies, activities, everything we do is accessible to all citizens. So we're going to talk about the majority of that is going to be title two. Just so you're aware as we're going through this, if you are not a library, let's go ahead and go to the next slide. If you're not a library that is say a governmental entity, meaning a public library, you still could be required under the ADA to make sure that your programs, activities, your facilities are accessible to all people. So let's ask ourselves, am I title two, meaning a governmental entity, or am I title three, meaning a public? Usually where you draw the line is trace the money. Where does the money come from? For the most part, if you're a public library, the money is most likely coming from either a state, county or city. So that's very clear, you're going to be covered under title two because your funding comes from a governmental entity, and you are serving the public through that governmental service. So most likely the majority of the libraries are going to be falling under title two. Something to think about though, title three, that's the section of the ADA that covers public entities. In other words, restaurants, movie theaters, museums, that's where title three comes in. So if you're a library that is maybe funded by a nonprofit organization, or let's say for example, you're a library within a children's museum, then that means you're going to probably fall under title three. If you are a library within a school, then you need to look at again, where's the funding coming from? Are you a public school? If you're a public school, then you're going to probably fall under what we call the Rehabilitation Act. If you're a private school, you might fall under a different section of the ADA, or you might not fall under the ADA at all if you're funded by a church, because all religious entities are exempt from the ADA. So what we're going to go through today, as I said before, we're going to be focusing mostly on title two. But I want to be clear, title two, title three, the Rehabilitation Act. When universities and colleges, universities and colleges would be under the Rehabilitation Act. School related as well. Right, so no matter what you fall under, chances are you're going to fall under the ADA or the Rehabilitation Act, in some way somehow. And the majority of the requirements for us as we are serving our consumers are going to be very, very similar. So we're not going to spend a lot of time nitpicking these things apart. We're going to be talking about broad concepts that for the most part are going to be under title two. But again, no matter what kind of library you are, you're still going to have some sort of obligations to accommodate for the people that we serve. Okay. All right, so this is title two. Again, title two of the ADA covers our governmental entities. What I really want us to take away today is that under the ADA, our services, programs and activities must be accessible to all citizens. And when you think about what is our role or what is our business as a library and our role as a library is to provide services, programs and activities. That's everything. That's everything, right? So we really need to look at all that we're providing to the folks that we serve and make sure that all aspects of what we do is accessible. Okay. And again, as I said, title three is different. This is going to be our public entities, restaurants, theaters, museums, daycare facilities, et cetera. And again, if you are at a school or university, you're probably covered under Rehabilitation Act. So that's the kind of compliance piece. So let's touch again. I want to just expand a little bit our conversation on who's disabled under the law. And my little picture there says not every disability is visible. And as I shared earlier with the definition of disabled being expanded, we have a lot of folks that fall in this disability category that we wouldn't normally think as being disabled. The definition of disabled is basically any physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more life function. So that includes walking, talking, hearing, seeing. Those are some of the ones that we would think about, oh, yeah, they need the definition of disabled. But there's also a part of the definition that includes people that have a record of such impairment say maybe they have survived cancer. They're no longer seeking treatment, maybe they're in complete remission, but they could potentially still be considered disabled under the law. We also have another aspect of disabled, which is regarding as having an impairment. So this is someone who maybe has a facial scar due to a burn or something to where they're not really limited in any of their major life activities, but they appear to be disabled because they have a scar on their face because of a burn. So those folks are going to fall under the term disabled under the ADA. And then there's also several disabilities, which what we use the term invisible, those are going to be our disabilities that you can't see are we're seeing an increased amount of mental illness in this country. So folks that are suffering from any type of mental illness. We also include folks that maybe are having reproductive issues. Those can be covered under the ADA immune system problems circulatory systems. Just think about what goes on in the inside of our body, whether it has to do with an organ or our brains, final court system digestive system. Those are all considered invisible disabilities. And those are going to meet the definition as disabled under the law. So see how that really opens up the people that are going to be covered. And this also be things like PTSD. Yes, mental. Yes, as well. Yes, anxiety, depression, diabetes. I mean, everything that's that is invisible is probably going to be determined to be disability under the law. It's nice that it's broad that way. It's so many things that are like that that don't come up like in your day to day life. I mean, some I know, I have colleagues that have like auto immunizations and some days they're perfectly fine and you wouldn't even know. And then there's the one day where they are knocked on their butt and they're in bed for the day. And that's just the way it is. Yeah, and that have known. No, and you wouldn't have known. And that really is the intent of why they made the amendment to the ADA at the end of 08, which became effective in 2009 was to truly become inclusive. Meaning we want to include as many people as possible. Obviously, all citizens need to be able to access all services, programs and activities. So, again, I just I find it fascinating, of course, you know, it's just one of those things that I've done for several years has been involved with the ADA. And this change in how we define disability has literally changed the way that we accommodate all people. It's actually groundbreaking in the way that we're treating our citizens. So let's talk about that now that we know who disabled or who might be qualified as a disabled person. Basically, what does that mean for us? And I'm going to gear this towards our library audience today. And that what does that mean? Well, basically, it means that according to the law. We need to be able to make modifications, or sometimes we use the word accommodations to our services, programs and activities in order to make things possible for a disabled consumer that we're trying to serve. And what I want us to think about as we're going through the rest of this material is, is that we're looking at this on an individual basis. So I want everyone to just take a deep breath. What does that mean? That means that your facility, your program, your service, your activity does not need to be accessible to all right at the gate. You cannot predict what somebody's individual need is going to be. And I do not want us spending hours in conference rooms together as we're planning a program or some sort of new activity to ensure that we are inclusive to all people. It is impossible. You'd be there forever. You'd be there forever. You know, as we just spent some time talking about who's going to be considered disabled. Wow, that's a huge list of possibilities of who's going to be coming through your door to be served by you. And so don't get too worked up about, oh my goodness, it's got to be accessible for all people all the time. And we need to predict what people's needs are. That's impossible. But what you do need to be prepared for and what you need to be focused on is that your program services and activities need to be accessible for this person who's walking through the door or rolling through the door for this particular program and this service. And so as we talk about what a reasonable modification is, is it's just that we need to focus on the word reasonable. It doesn't mean that you have to build a new building. It doesn't mean you have to build a new parking lot. It doesn't mean that you have to be prepared to, you know, have all kinds of computer software just in case someone who's blind or visually impaired shows up. But you do need to have a plan and you need to be ready and you need to be training your staff with that readiness as well. Okay, so here's just a couple examples. So, for example, let's say someone comes in with a disability and they want to apply for a library card. Now, most of you, I'm assuming you can apply for a library card online. You can come in in person. You have multiple ways. Well, do you know what you've done with those multiple ways of getting a library card is you've already accommodated people. You've already made a modification. Yeah, you've given them an option. In other words, you're not saying to somebody that you have to fill this out online. That may not work for somebody depending upon what their disability is depending upon what their needs are. And so if you allow people to come in in person, maybe fill out a piece of paper and apply for a library card. Maybe you have your staff people at the front desk ready to fill out a piece of paper on behalf of someone. Because maybe they can't fill it out themselves or whatever reason. That is a prime example of what a reasonable modification is. Meaning your policy or your process of how to apply for a library card has already been modified. And some of us don't even realize what we did. We're like, oh, we just thought it would be more convenient to have multiple ways. But what you've just done is you are now making modifications so that way you're providing access to all people that would like a library card. So that's just one example. There's also another example when we're talking about maybe someone who is deaf or hard of hearing. We think that automatically think, oh, well they are going to need a sign language interpreter. Someone that knows ASL American Sign Language. That's not always true depending upon the person and the way that they communicate best. Actually an ASL interpreter may be the last thing they need. Maybe what they're going to need is some sort of what we call charts here in Nebraska. It would be like a think about closed captioning on TV. You have services that are available that can literally type as people are talking whether it's for a meeting. And you literally project the closed captioning up on a screen during your meeting or during your program or during your service. So that way those that are deaf and hard of hearing can still experience and still understand what's going on. But it may not be a sign language interpreter. That's the answer. There's automated programs that do that. Yeah, actually when we don't have that here with our live show, but when our recordings go up on YouTube, YouTube has that feature. Which I know because I remember we first started doing this in Compass Live. It's been around the 13th year of the show. It was a little iffy. Some of the automated was not so. But I've watched a few of them lately. I keep an eye on them and check the spot check and it's gotten a lot more accurate. I can actually like it actually makes sense. Yes. And you can just turn that on. And this is not something that we had to do ourselves to like pay to have the service done or have someone translate it, you know, transposed it or something. It's just an automatic thing within YouTube. They just click the button and it starts coming out on the screen. I love that that we have that available. It has gotten better. And then there's also apps available on smartphones that folks with either, you know, they're either deaf or hard of hearing that they already prefer. And so this folks. So they attend a session. They can just use their phone. Yeah. So then you just maybe need to not get on people for having their cell phones out on the table during the meeting. That app is it's similar to there was a computer program called Dragon speak. People still use it. We have that. Yeah. Where it literally takes voice and translate it into words. And some of the apps that are available on smartphones these days, they're excellent. Yeah. You know, to your point, Krista, the technology is so advanced. Yeah. Yes, it is. It is amazing. But so that's just, you know, a couple of things to think about. And so then when we're thinking about the blind and visually impaired. Maybe you don't necessarily need all your materials in Braille. What you need is send them ahead of time via email. You know, people are free registering for a program or an activity, send it to them via email the day before they can use a screen reader on their computer or be ready. Again, this is where you need to be training your staff. They can read for them. And so it's just someone's blind and visually impaired. Again, we don't need to get all worked up or nervous thinking that we need to have everything in Braille. You need to be working with the customer or the constituent or the citizen that is seeking your program service or activity and determine what's going to be the most reasonable modification that we can that we can make for this person. In order to, yes, be compliant with the law, but more importantly, including them in your program services or activities. And I think a lot of it might also just be instilling that attitude in your staff that figure out a way to make it work for this person, whatever it is that they need it. Maybe it may be something you've set up and at a time that you know you because we do have we did do some grants here in the state. We didn't provide any workstations as part of grant to some libraries. And that's great if you've got that set up and you know that that's there. Make sure your staff know what's there and know how to get them started on it. But if you don't have that figure out, you know, just know that there are these things available or at least have them. And hopefully, you know, as a library, that's what your point is to be of service. Yes. When they ask for something, say, let me try and figure out what we can do. I'm not sure, but let me ask someone. Let me see what we can do and just be open to whatever it is you need to tweak and on the fly do to make it work. Right, right. And you know, and I think that leads to my next point that I want to bring forward you all. And if there's any attorneys out there listening in, you can plug your ears when I say this, but I when I'm training people on the ADA. I always want to remind people to not react out of fear of a lawsuit. That is the worst thing that you can do and do not train your staff to always act out of fear of a lawsuit, especially dealing in state government. You know, we're a public entity. We will be sued. We will. It's just a very unfortunate part of our society today is that we are very litigious these days. And someone might file a complaint, you know, to the Department of Justice, they might try to take you to court or whatever. That should not be your motivation to be making modifications or accommodating people. You know, as Christa said, you need to be acting out of genuine desire to provide great service to everyone that walks through your door. And as long as you're doing that, no matter what the end result is, you're good. You know what I mean, because then you could just if you are sued, for example, all you have to do is say, you know what, my staff did this and this and this. And we did our absolute best to make a reasonable modification for this person. And this was our end result. Are you always going to make everybody happy? No, that's not your job. Your job is to make a reasonable modification and do it to the best of your ability and just and not worry about the rest. I really see people become paralyzed with fear of lawsuits. And that is definitely not the right motivation when we're talking about serving the folks that we are supposed to be serving. So that's my little soapbox and attorneys you can unplug your ears. I just think that we all need to be very reasonable about this that yes, you might get sued, but do not act in fear of a lawsuit. Okay. All right, so we're going to go ahead and go through these are just some these next slides are just some helpful tips. Mostly focusing on disability etiquette is the terminology that that I like to use. And again, just some mental takeaways for you all. As we're, we're looking at things. I do want to refer very quickly to the handouts here. We've got one on the 12 basic requirements. Yep. Yeah. This is a handout that's available to you all 12 basic requirements for ADA compliance, the library, and we'll provide you with these documents in the archive afterwards to have them on the website with the recording in the slides. That would be great because then this is going to be one of your reference documents as you walk away today. I do not have time to go through all of the technical requirements of the ADA. So when we're talking about how wide your path should be, what the ideal height of bookshelves should be. What is the height of your customer service desk or your reference desk? I, we don't have time to go through that all that would honestly take days for us to go through. But you got this. Yes, this is a true takeaway for you. This is from the access advocates calm. It is legit. In other words, I have checked it out. It is accurate. And I think this is a great resource because it is totally focused on libraries. And so if you don't remember anything today, at least get this handout and this is going to be one of your great technical takeaways as we leave today. The other handout is another what I call legit handout. This is from the Office of Disability Employment Policy. They're actually a division of the United States Department of Labor. And even though this handout is geared more towards employment, I love the way that they have identified positive phrases and negative phrases when we are referring to somebody with a disability. This relates to our fear conversation. I don't want anyone acting in fear when we're trying to serve the disabled population. If you can review some of these positive phrases here, I think sometimes too that gets us over our fear of offending somebody, our fear of hurting somebody's feelings, our fear of maybe categorizing or stereotyping somebody. These are great, again, legit positive phrases that you can use, whether you are trying to seek assistance, maybe within your board, within your staff, even just trying to report for your own documentation of what a person has requested or what type of impairment they may have. So again, a takeaway for you to use as a resource. And can we scroll down just a little bit, Krista? These tips, again, and we're going to go through some of these as we finish up the slides, but these are, again, more of a disability etiquette. In other words, when to help somebody who may be visually impaired, when to help somebody with a wheelchair, and we'll go back to the slides, because I think some of these slides have more of a visual reminder. Yeah, but this is nice that this is like a handout to give out to your staff, too. Yes. Have, you know, study on it, like just a couple, this is just a two page thing. And so I think of the other one as well. Yes, it's just a couple pages long. And again, I chose these for a reason. I always want people to have some sort of takeaway after they finish up a training with me. And again, these are two totally legit handouts for you. And as you said, Krista, you can use them for your own reference or as you're training your staff, your volunteers, maybe even your board needs to be a little bit trained up. Yeah, share these. Share those. Okay, so let's go ahead and just go through some of this. Again, these are just broad thoughts that I want us to all walk away with. So basically, when we're talking about physical access, we're talking about keeping our walkways ramps, keep them clear. Just because no one's used the wheelchair ramp in five years doesn't mean that someone's going to pull up and need a wheelchair ramp. And you never know. And again, I just think that this is something that we just need to be cognizant of. You know, I, you probably can't tell, but I use a wheelchair for my daily mobility. And it's been funny over the years. Sometimes the only accessible restroom is maybe downstairs in the basement. We're talking about things in older buildings. And so I go into use the restroom and it also acts as a cleaning closet. And so sometimes there's a mop bucket in the way of a recycling. You know what I mean? Think about the message that you've just sent to that person when you have obstacles that don't really need to be there. And no one's taken the time to keep that route clear or to keep that restroom clear of things that don't really belong there. So it's just something for us to think about. Again, when we're talking about reasonable modifications, I get lots of questions from folks that maybe your library is in an older building. Yes, we have that a lot. It's hard to get funding to do new buildings or modifications to buildings. It is. It's very difficult. And I just want you to think about, remember we talked about where required to make reasonable modifications. And so if your front entrance to your library doesn't have a wheelchair ramp, for example, that doesn't mean that you can't allow people in through a side door or a back door. And just have a clear signage that accessible entrance is in the back. You know, and that's totally fine. That is totally fine. Again, as I said, restaurants, if the restrooms that are there, maybe off of one of your main stack areas, for example, is not accessible. It's okay to put a sign next to that and say accessible restaurants are found on the first floor or in the basement or whatever the case may be. And then again, you know, as you're making signs, Braille is a good idea. Now with the internet, I mean, really on Amazon, Google, all you have to do is Google accessible signs. And they'll be, you'll find all sorts of stuff and they'll already have the Braille on them. So it just needs to be reasonable. Part of this is thinking some, some libraries have your time taking a side door or back door or something. Many libraries you've got your public area and your staff area, we are, you know, no public allowed it's the back rooms where you're cataloging and whatnot. You may have to offer access to there if you've got like a loading dug area somewhere where you have things delivered and that's where the staff comes in the back door and that's the one that doesn't have stairs. You're going to have to say to your staff, if someone needs, it is okay to bring them around to the side, let them in that door, escort them through the staff area if necessary. That's probably a good idea because I've been, I'm in the library, it's, it's a maze that you never know. Bring them to where they can get out to the regular rest of the library. And then when they're done, some is going to have to be there to make that a service. Yes. And just realize they're going to have to be passing through there. Yes. And that is compliant with the ADA. And that totally works. So again, you know, I think just being cognizant of, you know, the people that you might be serving and having your staff, your volunteers have it already talked about. And just say just do the best you can. These are our options. So that way we truly are being all inclusive as much as possible. There is another possibility that I've talked about with several folks here in Nebraska. When we're talking about our buildings that are maybe over 100 years old, maybe even you're in a building that's on the historical register, then you are not required to make a wheelchair ramp, for example. So then that leads to thinking creatively about home delivery. Yeah, yeah, service. Yeah. And so, yeah, maybe add a service or expand your existing service. And maybe that means that for certain individuals that you've determined you can't accommodate or make modifications in any other way shape or form, you allow them to pick up books online, pick up the phone call and maybe talk to a staff person to find a book for them. And then you end up either bringing it to them out on the curb, which is totally fine, or bring it to their home. And so, again, that leads to what's going to be reasonable for you and your staff, and what's going to be reasonable for the person that you're trying to serve. That would be our Carnegie Libraries here in Nebraska and across the country. They were Carnegie Libraries gorgeous, gorgeous buildings, all the stairs going up into them, which was very regal and impressive looking, of course. And they still are. And at the time that was part of the idea. But now, with all this, it just doesn't work. And we know that's, that's one of the big things I'm sure. Well, many, two big things with Carnegie Libraries. They're falling apart because they're old. And unfortunately, sometimes they get taken care of and the ADA issue. It's a beautiful building, but and they can make modifications sometimes. Some libraries have had to make the modification of moving into a totally new building because it is so bad. The library, the Carnegie Library building becomes something else. Right. So that is an after that's what we're talking about those old buildings that just we're not this is not something you've thought about. Right. And so again, I just think just keep your keep your minds open and be creative. And just always do your best to make modifications where you can. Okay. So. Sorry. Thank you. Okay. So now let's talk a little bit about when people need help. We need to make sure that we're asking. You can see in this picture, we've got a woman who believes she's helping, literally grabbing someone who is either blind or visually impaired. I'm assuming blind because they have the glasses and the, and the white cane. That's the last thing you want to do is grab somebody. I have a funny story and I love telling stories and we have a little bit of time. So I'm going to share it. As I said, I do use a wheelchair for my daily mobility. And I had gone off to college and there was a ramp out in front of my dorm. And it was quite long and it was big. Again, it was an older building, but it was, it was fine. It wasn't that much of a hardship. I, I'm, I'm pushing myself up this ramp kind of slow, you know, but I was doing it. Yeah. And one of the guys on the football team, big, you know, stereotypical football player came up behind me, grabbed my wheelchair and gave me a push thinking he was helping. I had my fingers in the spokes of my wheelchair as I was grabbing the wheels with a little bit of extra force to get up that ramp and had hurt my finger. And fortunately I didn't swear or cuss, but my heart just bled for this young man. He felt terrible. He felt terrible that he had ended up hurting me when he was trying to help. So again, if someone appears to be disabled and they appear to need assistance, ask some people will still turn you down and that's okay. And that's okay. And so just make sure that you're asking because what happens is either people sometimes get hurt and then sometimes people are offended. So just always ask, say, Hey, do you need help with that door? You know, I'm here to help if you need anything and make sure that you're always, always asking. Yeah, it doesn't hurt to ask anything that they're good. They'll say, no, I'm fine. I got it. And if they do, they'll say it. Right, right. So that's just something to consider. Don't assume. Don't assume. Don't assume. And then as we're talking about, you know, reaching out and touching someone or touching someone's wheelchair, obviously ask the only time it is ever okay to ever carry a person who's extremely physically limited either carrying them upstairs, downstairs, in or out of a, you know, a doorway or whatever is in case of absolute emergency. I don't want anyone to get into a habit of every Thursday morning. We're going to meet Crystal out on the curb and then we're going to carry her up the stairs to the library. Not okay. First of all, it's not safe. I would hate for anyone to increase their liability. Oh, yeah. And that's really not, when we're talking about reasonable modifications. Unless you're like a medical professional who does that and has been trained, I don't know that I would want any random person doing that for me. Right. So just so we're clear, you know, as I said, be creative as we're trying to accommodate people. But what we also need to do is also be safe. And so the only time it's safe to actually pick somebody up, say someone like me who uses a wheelchair for daily mobility is after you've asked them and to, if it is an emergency and you need to evacuate people out of the building. So that's just something to think about. So, okay. So next slide here, Crystal. I'm sorry. I'm not paying attention to what you're doing. Okay. So here's something to think about when we're talking about folks that are hearing impaired. I think sometimes, you know, I've caught myself doing it multiple times even this morning. We look down. We look down at our notes because we need to or we'll look down at a file or even as we're helping people look for books or whatever it may be in the stacks, we look down rather than talking to the person. If they're hearing impaired, they may need to be reading lists in order to fully understand you. Again, you just don't want to assume that everyone can hear you. I think then too, it's just basic common courtesy to look at somebody and give them some eye contact. Yeah. And I know some people have anxiety issues or something with that. Sure. But it's just something to practice. Yes, it's great to practice. And then I'm going to spin this to the opposite. One thing that, you know, we do, I've caught myself doing this multiple times. If someone is visibly disabled or maybe even deaf and they're using someone with sign language, we have the tendency to look at the interpreter, talk to the interpreter, not the person who's actually seeking the service. And so, you know, again, years ago, with me using a wheelchair for my daily mobility, wheelchair, I can't hide it. But oftentimes people do not talk to me. I think this is my next slide, Chris, if you would. They don't talk to me. They talk to my husband. They talk to my sister, you know, whoever's with me, not realizing what they're really doing. So speak directly to the individual that's there for the services, whether they are visually disabled, you know, you can actually see their disability or maybe they're hard of hearing and they're using someone who's signing for them. Make sure you look at that individual and not the interpreter or their companion. That is highly rude to do that. So again, it's just something to think about. Okay. Also something to think about when we're talking about all sorts of disabilities is our media. So we need to ensure that all forms of media is accessible for the most part. I think, Chris, you were talking about YouTube earlier, that we can get closed captioning on those things rather easily. And for the most part, our websites, Facebook, Twitter, things of that nature are going to be accessible because they're readable by screen readers. But think about this too, that maybe your reasonable modification is that when you're providing handouts, like the ones that like this, you know, with all of the small words, maybe what you need to do is you need to have a large print version available. And maybe you don't necessarily make it ahead of time and print 100 of them. But maybe you have your staff and volunteers trained on how to do that on request. Or, you know, if you're super organized, do go ahead and get five or six of them printed ahead of time so they are in large print. But again, those are just the types of things that I want us to kind of keep in mind and think about as we're thinking what is going to be a reasonable modification for people as they're seeking our services. So the last slide that we're going to, in this topic, usually sparks a ton of questions. Service animals. Just broadly speaking, remember the service animal is trained, they are working. And I chose this picture of this miniature horse for a reason. Under Title II and Title III of the ADA, service animals are dogs or miniature horses. That's it. Really? Yes. Miniature horses actually became an official, quote, service animal through some case law. And they are serving similar functions as what we would consider a service dog. So when we're talking about animals coming into our libraries, allowing a service animal to come in when maybe you don't normally allow pets. Remember, service animals are not pets. And that is a modification to your policy that you're making in order to accommodate people. So again, service animals are dogs or miniature horses. Now where we get confused and where people have tons of questions is when we're talking about emotional support animals or companion animals. Some of you may have seen in the news, was that two months ago, we had someone bring a peacock into the airport and they wanted the peacock to fly with them as a companion animal. This is a slippery slope for many of us in that we don't fully understand what an emotional support animal or what a companion animal is. We maybe don't have a lot of experience in this area, so then we get really nervous. We also don't necessarily want a peacock in our library. So then we act the way the airline did and said no. And they've actually revamped their service animal policies on airplanes multiple times over the last two months. So here's something I want you all to consider. Again, service animals are required to be allowed in the library. Dogs, miniature horses. Other animals are most likely, not always, but most likely going to be emotional support or companion animals, and we do not have to allow them into our libraries. However, depending upon the individual and what the animal was trained to do, if you would be taken to court, the judge potentially could determine that that specific cat is actually a service animal and needs to be allowed in the library. This is where you are going to need case-by-case review. You are going to be needing advice from your attorneys. You're going to be looking at past practice, in other words, what you've done before, what your current policy says about service animals, companion animals, emotional support animals, and other things of that nature. Also remember, if you have someone that brings in a service animal or companion animal, emotional support animal, you can only ask what the animal's been trained to do and in what way that animal is assisting them. You cannot ask the person what their impairment, disability, or condition is, but you do not have the right to force someone to disclose that type of information, but you can require that they explain the service that that animal is providing to them while they're in your library. So you do have that right. And I think sometimes as we're training our staff and our volunteers, that is the best way to train our folks on how to handle this whole animal situation. And then that way you're not getting too bogged down in, is it a service animal? Is it a companion animal? Is it an emotional support animal? Just train all staff when they're presented with an animal that they don't recognize, that maybe never has been in your library before. Just very briefly say, you know, we allow service animals in this library. I need to know specifically what this animal's been trained to help you with. And then sometimes just gathering that information right away from the get-go makes it so much easier to determine what to do next. And obviously again, you need to be working with your legal staff, your board, maybe you have a board of directors, whatever the case may be, to determine what's going to be best for you and your library. This is definitely a, can be a difficult situation depending on, you know, and I like that you said it's going to be, you got to do it case by case. We can't really have a blanket no. Yeah. And because you're going to get in trouble. I mean, if you do have someone who does need the, I don't know, you said cat or bird or whatever it is that, you know, if they are, if they have anxiety issue and the animal's been trained to understand and realize when they're going to have that kind of a panic attack or something and comfort them. I wouldn't want that animal with that person in my library to make sure it doesn't happen, that that person doesn't, right, to go and have an issue in an incident in your building. But then on the reverse too, if they're not legitimately trained. That's the thing. Yeah. They have to be legitimate. They have to be legitimate. You see all the stories of people just trying to fake it. Yeah. That would be the thing. Now, is there any way, and I see here that this is where she's wearing, you know, the, in assistance animal training. Right. Is there any requirement for people with service or emotional companion to have something on the animal or documentation with them that says, here's the note from my doctor. Right. Right. That is a, this is right now. Yeah. This is a gray area right now because there is no requirement to have your service animal say certified. In fact, you can buy service animal best paperwork for 25 bucks or so on the internet. And then people are doing that. Unfortunately, they're ruining it for everyone that has a serious need. You can though, depending upon where you live, and this is going to be a local law, but for example, here in Nebraska and here in Lincoln, we have a city ordinance that requires all animals to be registered. And so, license license. So for example, if I had a service animal, I am still required to have my service animal license. This is just for pets too. This is something I learned. I moved here from New York. Oh, and we don't have that in New York. And I had cats when I came here. I still have cats, different cats now it's been years, but and cats and dogs, they have to be licensed every year. You have to redo and pay a fee to have your animal license. Right. That they know you have these and there's a limit to how many you can have without bumping up to a different type of license or breeder thing or whatever. Yeah. So you can still require that. And you know, in some governmental entities for a service animal, they might waive the fee. So you're not paying to have that animal registered or certified. So again, those are going to be more on the local level. It's also going to be based on, you know, what your library policy is. You know, it's okay to require some sort of, I'm going to call it a hoop to have people junk through their licensed, proof they're vaccinated and not stay on their shots. So other people or animals don't get infected by something potentially. That's right. That's a common thing that we totally appropriate to do. Yes. But ultimately, as far as asking them what service does this animal provide for you, you're just going to have to trust them when they explain it to you. I would hope unless one's really good at it, when you pose that question, you're going to be able to tell, Oh, they know exactly what they're talking about. They're going to explain it rather than someone getting a little antsy. Right. Well, it's for my emotional support. And you just get, unless they start getting all. Right. Indignant then. Yeah. If they can specifically tell you what the animals been trained for, then you can tell something else to think about. You are not required to allow any service animal to remain in your library. If they become unruly, if they are not potty trained, if the individual that needs the service animal is not able to take them in and outside to go to the bathroom by themselves. In other words, your staff should never be responsible to take a service animal in and outside so it can go to the bathroom. Remember, barking once or twice is fine. Constant barking, growling, yipping, snipping, jumping, running around. All of that is not okay. Just like for a person. Just like a person who's. And you want to be. Disrupting. And this is something good to have. And this is something we talk about a lot here with trying to get libraries. Having a policy and writing that details this kind of stream. So that if someone does say, well, it's my service animal and you can't kick me out, no matter what you can say. can say well actually yes and here's our policy that states this that we have gone over with our lawyers or with the city or the county your dog is is you know jumping at little kids right you're no right you're out you're out yeah so that's right having you know think about those kind of things like you would about disruptive people exactly yeah same thing that's right that's right I think you had another yeah yeah these are just my sources that I used to put this together the United Spinal Association is where I got most of the pictures and they actually have an expanded disability etiquette section and in one of their documents Great Plains ADA Center provided some information for this presentation on what ADA titles the title two and three information that I shared with you the US Department of Justice is actually they're the ones that people would file complaints with if you if they determine or believe that you're in violation of title two and three of the ADA they also provide some great technical guidance so the handout that I gave you from ADA can't remember the source right now stop my head that's where that comes from so the height of counters all of that is in their technical tips yeah that's where the technical 80 provisions are found again the Census Bureau which I shared with you at the beginning of the presentation and the opposite disability rights is one of the handouts that I gave you so those are just sources in case you want to go out to their websites and kind of expand your own research on the ADA do you have another son here is that's it okay yeah all right we do one question if you have any questions nobody any questions during that's great have anything else we are a little after 11 o'clock but that's okay we go as long as is necessary here to get all your questions answered and get through everything that Chris was presenting which we've done so go ahead and type your questions and we do have one here that's just come in which is interesting this I can see how this can be some people's concerns issues how do you deal with those that use their disability as a crutch and I've seen the quotes because that's what they put on their question for so they don't have to do what they need done like making prints or getting on the computer so I think this is an attitude of your staff that they're assuming the person is and is using it as a question saying well I can't make my own print so I want you to do everything for me yeah that's a tricky one and I think that's good you and yeah and this is what I would this is what I tell folks you are not a doctor and I don't want you to play doctor in other words I don't want you to spend a lot of time determining that this person is not really disabled that's not your job that's not your job and that actually gets you and the library in more trouble when you assume that this person is not disabled again ten years ago before they amended the definition of disability in the ADA I would have given you different advice okay but remember that the the definition of disability has been expanded so it is inclusive right so what I want you to do is I want you to approach this person as if their disability is legit because again you're not a doctor but then too this is where you need to be using some of your own judgment are they seeking reasonable modification of your policies in other words if they come into the library every day and spend four hours every day at your library and they are insisting that they need someone one of your staff or volunteer to physically maneuver around the library with them to do all sorts of various tasks you need to ask yourself is that reasonable is that a reasonable commitment for me to make to this constituent or to this citizen to allow one of my staff or one of my volunteers to literally act as a companion for this person as I navigate the library on a daily basis some would probably argue that that's not a reasonable modification if this individual needs that much assistance isn't reasonable for them to deep to be relying on your staff for that or should they be bringing a companion with them and sometimes they said that's gonna be you're gonna use your librarian expertise in this because you have people that are not disabled who are who do they're needy they're needy yeah but yeah they're just needy and they want help constantly they do and you treat them in a certain way too you'll decide well yes so-and-so is just you know she has some mental disability and yes we're going to help her and sit at the computer and write this because obviously this is the only way to make it happen but then you know there's the ones that are just you work for me because I pay your taxes and you're gonna do everything for me just because I don't want to and you make those judgment yes and you can do the same thing with people who say that because of my disability that this and everything and it can be on a case-by-case basis and it can be on a day-to-day basis yes if you're having a crazy busy day of summer reading and everyone is crazy busy and the person comes in and says you I mean I think it is appropriate to say just to anyone we are so busy I don't have a person who can come and sit you with you right now and do this this program will be over in an hour can you come back that's reasonable modification and accommodation you don't have to be on call for them that's what's not being on call to be their personal assistant for the entire time if you can't right because a reasonable person is gonna see that as a reasonable modification I get it I understand I'm sorry I didn't realize you were doing summer reading this morning I'll come back this afternoon or tomorrow or whatever and so again that's just where you really again don't focus on the disability don't focus on categorizing or determining what people need for them you need to focus on what's reasonable and what you can do for them right and some of things you're about getting on the computer that's something that's a a slippery slip just in libraries in general and I know you talk about the assistance of getting workstations and things there's only so much that we can do for anybody with helping them with things on their computer because if we're talking about personal information yes can you help me fill out this job application which includes my social security number my personal bank and kind of stuff that point you gotta say no I can't do that that's I can't know your social security never can't know you're bad I mean I appreciate that you need someone to help you but you're gonna have to find someone who knows you a family member or friend or someone else to do this for you right because I can't and you've been there line for anybody yeah and and that's the line you're looking at you're looking at as a library we are providing a computer station as a service we are not providing job application or resume advice that is not our job you know that's not our service unless that is something you have with someone who's a consultant yeah here we're having a program about how to write a good resume but I'm talking about sitting at this keyboard for them and typing in their personal private info that's that's different you've got and it has nothing to do with being disabled or not even though that person may think it is you've got to read or explain yeah just look at where you know yeah yeah yeah all right doesn't look at any other questions can we do a comment from one of our libraries here Beth thank you great updated info looking forward to handouts we will use this for a staff training that's awesome that's great yes please do use them for your staff training and as I said we are recording today so this whole session is being recorded will be available hopefully just a little later this afternoon for you everyone who is attended here and who registered will get sent an email letting you know the recordings available and you can use that in your staff training play the session parts of it whatever you want to from that all of our recordings are free nothing for anyone to use out there so if nobody else has any questions while we're talking here you had a chance to I think we will wrap it up for this morning thank you very much everyone for taking thank you very much for having us this morning yes we had luckily even though we've had them with great weather you're mentioning earlier to keep walking your office over here outside is nice today in between some of our rainy and snowy days that we've been having great so thank you very much for coming and sharing with us thank you everyone for attending as I said this will be posted onto our website and I'm going to switch over here there we go there we go this is the library commission's webpage where you can find our encompass live shows on our website by searching here on our search or luckily so far if you just do your Google so far in the world and compass we're the only thing called encompass live that's right so far so when you search just for us you find our page you find our guys kind of main page so here's the commission's our main page for the show where you can find our upcoming sessions but then right beneath them is our link to our archives you can click here and you'll have all of our archives are most recent was the top of the page this is last week's so today shall be right at the top there when I get it posted we will have this week the recording as I said our YouTube channel and the slides in the handouts will have links here will be all posted we upload them to the website for you to have access to this is our archives for all of our shows and I've mentioned briefly earlier this is the 10th year of encompass live so this is going back to the very beginning and if you scroll all the way down if anyone has for to go issues close your eyes I'm going to scroll all the way the bottom there we go all the way back to January 2009 you first started here so do keep that in mind we went through our archives we do have a search feature at the top of the screen here where you can search all of our archives will search in the subjects the descriptions that the names of different people who presented you will find old resources other old recordings in archives here everything is dated those you know exactly when it when it happened so be where you will find outdated information expired links potentially we're not like information things that will look like they're out of date and that's okay it's there for archival purposes we're librarians we save and archive everything that's right so just pay attention when you are looking at somewhere older sessions down what the dates are on there so that's where the archive will be and so later this afternoon then hopefully I'll get it done early so that wrap it up today I hope you join us next week our topic is building a future the big move this is about library the Timbrook library and chemical library system in Virginia Lynchburg Virginia they did a big move with their library and their library in there Dana Bobba's going to be with us next week to talk about how they pulled it off and what happened this is a the business branch of the system this is a smallish library though so if you're a small real library this would be something appropriate to you as well so please do join us for next week's show or any of our other shows we have this is here you see April and May starting to get booked so keep an eye on here for new shows being added and couples live is also on Facebook if you're a big Facebook user go over there and give us a like we post when here's your mind about lying today show when our archives are available I post on here reminders about things so please do you know if you're like using Facebook like us there and you'll be notified about what we're doing other than that that wraps it up for this morning thank you and we'll see you next week on and compass live bye bye thank you