accessibility

Disability Pride Month

Last week, MSU held the third iteration of its Disability Summit, a symposium on disability and accessibility on campus and in academia more generally. The event brings in a guest speaker to discuss their work and the summit’s theme. Then, depending on the year, there are other panels and related events.

At MSU, we celebrate Disability Pride Month during October, rather than in July, so that it falls during the school year, allowing for programming throughout the month to reach more students. Over the years, the Disability Summit has served to kick off the month before a variety of other accessibility- and disability-related events take place.

In the library, we put up a display of books in the lobby that can be checked out. As with all lobby displays that I’ve put up, I first selected eye-catching covers. I also tried to mix in authors with a variety of identities, both related to disabilities and with regard to other aspects of identity such as ethnicity or sexuality. I also like to provide a mix of traditional, “academic” books, alongside fiction and more “popular” nonfiction works. And, because I’m an area studies librarian at heart, I also like to bring in translated literature or perspectives from other countries when I can. I do a lot of lobby displays, but I’ve noticed that the displays for Disability Pride Month are particularly popular—whether because of the subject matter or the wide range of books I can showcase, I’m not sure.

At the Disability Summit, I set up a similar table, but geared toward more academic titles and especially books dealing with disabilities and access within academia. Because attendees can’t directly check out books from a display outside the library, I direct them to a LibGuide with a list of the books from both displays and a separate list of ebooks. This year, I also made a couple of mini zines showcasing recent acquisitions in the collection, which proved to be popular.

While I was manning the library’s table, my boss was in another room, running a popup sensory room. This both gave symposium attendees a space away from the hustle and bustle of the main room and also gave attendees a good idea of what our sensory room offers.

This year, the keynote speaker at was Dr. Sami Schalk, author of Black Disability Politics. There was also a panel of students reflecting on their experiences at MSU—always a highlight for me. Then, in the afternoon, there were various other concurrent talks. I was in and out during the morning sessions because I wanted to be at my table. In the afternoon, I stayed at the table and had several good conversations with passersby about accessibility and the library. Many of the symposium attendees were people who work on accessibility every day, but there were also people I met who came because they wanted to learn more and bring something back to their departments.

Ultimately, the symposium was a nice start to the month and hopefully also helped introduce people to what the accessibility unit in the library has to offer. Putting together a nice tabling set up, with books tailored to an event and mini zines, if I can manage to put them together, takes some work, but I’ve developed a system now and know what pieces I need to pull off an event. I find tabling really worthwhile, allowing me to interact with the library’s collection in a different way and giving me the opportunity to meet some new people and talk about the library.

What about you? Do you regularly attend events as a librarian and, if so, what kind of activities or set ups do you have?

The Allegory of the Meniscus or Accepting the Reality of Middle Management in Higher Education

Editor’s note: We welcome a guest blog post from Dustin Fife, College Librarian at Colorado College Library.

As with so many people who have recently completed a dissertation, I worry/assume that it will not find a broad audience, which is okay. However, there was one aspect of my study that felt so essential to the daily life of higher education that I translated it into this format and have focused on what I believe is a particularly important and illuminating illustration. I spent time with academic library administrators (deans and directors) exploring their experiences with DEIA work and had a key framework reinforced throughout the interviews for better understanding almost everything they do. It will not sound monumental at first, but the lived experiences of the people with whom I worked, along with my own experiences leading libraries and observing campuses, tells me that we have not accepted this reality within our many academic communities. In the shortest terms possible, department chairs, deans, directors, and academic library administrators are institutional middle managers.

Throughout my research project, one quote more than any other captured this sentiment and the reality that the work of these positions is shaped and constrained by positionality. This quote was given by a library dean using the alias Justice, and I began colloquially referring to it as, The Allegory of the Meniscus.

So, one of the vice presidents here…she used to have this great metaphor that she used. She said department chairs, deans in particular, are in what she called meniscus positions. So, you picture the meniscus in the knee, right? It is subject to constant pressure from above and constant pressure from below. And the meniscus’s job is to try to keep things aligned so that the knee doesn’t blow out. And one of the things that you have to ask yourself when you’re a dean is, do I see myself primarily as a representative of the people organizationally below me up to the university administration, or do I see myself primarily as a representative of the administration down to the people organizationally below me? And of course, the reality is you’re both. You’re always both. (p. 25-26)

So, if you do not always accept that the people in these roles are middle managers, or you do not believe that your chair or dean are constrained by their positionality, spend an afternoon thinking of them as a meniscus. Feel that knee grinding and twisting and balancing. Maybe even try to hop around on one leg. This reframing can change how we all conceptualize what is possible in colleges and universities from these positions and lead to more realistic conversations about DEIA work and a bevy of other topics.

Now, before the organizational scholars scoff, I want to say that I know this is not an earthshaking concept. I know that anyone who looks at an organizational chart should realize that these folks are institutional middle managers. But our daily expectations at colleges and universities do not seem to align with this reality and neither did the lived experiences of my interviewees. Interestingly, the library administrators with whom I worked reported having to convince people within their teams that they were middle managers, with all the obligations and constraints that come with that positionality. When one of the interviewees, Quinn, was discussing the frustrations of middle management and being stuck in the middle with her colleagues, she said, “and I’m like, I know, I feel that way too. And they’re like, no, you’re not, you’re the director. And I’m like, no, I have a boss. We’re all in the middle of something” (p. 27).

I asked library administrators what their role is, or should be, in DEIA work and so much of our conversations revolved around the concepts of middle management that I concluded,

Without this middle management framework in mind, it would be hard to truly understand the experiences of the interviewees. Their structural positionality created the opportunities and constraints by which they experience DEIA work…In short, to better understand the experiences of these library administrators with DEIA work and the choices that they make, we must understand that they are institutional middle managers. Accepting this reality, along with the constraints and opportunities provided by this positionality, should create more realistic conversations within libraries about what is and is not possible within DEIA work. (p. 77)

And while this is not a naked attempt to garner sympathy for people who serve in positions like my own, I think it does provide a pathway to greater understanding within educational organizations.

This concept was further reified by the ways that these library leaders comprehended their roles within DEIA work. “The interviewees emphatically conceptualize their role as facilitators, modelers, prioritizers, strategic emphasizers, and allocators. Their narratives focused heavily on actions that enabled or empowered DEIA work through facilitation and modeling” (p. 77-78) and not on controlling DEIA work. This is emblematic of middle management. The most successful middle managers make things happen for other people by removing barriers and communicating vision.

While this research study was not intended to focus entirely on middle management and DEIA work among library administrators, middle management was a key factor once the stories were collected and analyzed. However, this dissertation also relays so much more about the experiences of these library leaders. They believe that DEIA work is inherently library work and that it is their job to prioritize, enable, and fund it. They believe that hiring processes and policies are one of the best ways for them to influence the culture of DEIA work and the general culture of the institution. They also identified that DEIA work is culture work. Shay summed this up well when they said, “the [DEIA] work is culture work, and it’s always been culture work” and culture work just takes time (p. 45). These voices were paramount to the study and add so much to our understanding of how library leaders experience DEIA work, especially as a phenomenology during the upheaval of 2025 as the Trump Administration worked to nullify and undo diversity, equity, and inclusion work from generations of people.

Regardless, the purpose of this discussion is not to minimize the role of these leaders or diminish their importance. Another thing that was made utterly clear by the interviewees was that for DEIA initiatives to be successful, they needed intentional support from people in these positions, which is true of many types of initiatives in my experience and should not come as a surprise. These constraints do not make leaders any less responsible; however, it is much easier to run an obstacle course with a map of the obstacles. Accepting that chairs, directors, deans, and library administrators are institutional middle managers and do sit in “meniscus positions” helps to chart a map of some of the most important obstacles.

Fife, D. (2026). Diversity, equity, inclusion & access, middle management, and facilitating change in academic libraries during a time of disruption: A phenomenological study of the experience of academic library administrators (Order No. 32788361). Available from Publicly Available Content Database. (3366955209). Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/diversity-equity-inclusion-amp-access-middle/docview/3366955209/se-2

A sensory room in the library

As the new semester gets ready to kick off, among other things, I’m getting ready for a new Project SEARCH intern. In preparation, we’re thinking about the work they might do at the library, including working on our sensory room.

Which brings me to the topic of this post: the sensory room itself. Before I get too deep into things, I want to add the disclaimer that I’ve only tangentially worked on the sensory room; it’s really my boss who’s done the bulk of the work, and all credit really should go to her. Now onto the post!

First of all, what is a sensory room? You can read the Wikipedia article on sensory rooms for yourself to learn more about some of the theory. The goals for our sensory room were to provide a place for library visitors to find stress relief, relax and work through emotions, and use items related to different sensory experiences.

To get this project going, we needed a combination of administrative buy-in, funding, and direction. Again, my supervisor was responsible for all of this while I mainly just looked on from afar. We luckily had a donor interested in funding a sensory room, so the preliminary phase of the project largely involved researching sensory rooms elsewhere to develop a plan for how ours would work. This included drawing up a set of guidelines for use of the room and a list of items to purchase.

You can find a complete list of what our sensory room includes online, but I’ll say here that it covers a wide range of items. There are different sorts of seating options, including a bean bug chair and the very popular egg chair (very similar to the Oberlin College Library womb chairs). There are also all sorts of lighting options, including a dimmer switch for the overhead lights, a light therapy lamp, and a hanging fiber optic light that changes colors. There are then all different kinds of sensory tools and toys, ranging from a weighted shoulder wrap to coloring books to a meditation tool in the shape of a sloth to a Bop It.

The room is decorated with sensory artwork—designs with different textures and colors. My boss also recently added a mosaic-like piece where visitors can follow numbers (in a paint-by-numbers style) and use different colored stickers to create a design together. We also have another space on the wall where visitors can provide feedback with sticky notes—people usually leave nice messages, which are fun to read.

As for how the room runs, we specifically have left it unlocked and without a reservation system, with the idea being that you won’t be able to predict when you’ll need a moment to regroup and therefore won’t be able to make a reservation ahead of time. The room allows for use by multiple people at a time, but there’s also the option to lock the door for thirty minutes. There are also sanitizing wipes available to sanitize anything that gets used.

In terms of maintenance, student workers or our Project SEARCH intern also sanitize high-touch items in the room. They are also responsible for completing an inventory of the room and noting down anything that’s missing or broken. In general, things going missing or breaking have been the biggest challenges we’ve had. We keep the room locked during the late-night hours to try to counteract this.

Overall, the sensory room has been a success. We’ve seen a lot of use just walking by and noting whether or not the door is closed. The feedback left by visitors has been nice to receive. We also have an online feedback form for those who don’t want to leave a sticky note. This feedback can be used to make changes to the room and to know what’s working well. Again, mostly from the sidelines, it’s been a project to get the sensory room up and running, but it has been worth it and does appear to be meeting a need.

As an aside, we also have sensory kits available for check out that work on similar principles. They include things like noise cancelling headphones, fidgets, and meditation tools. These are also inventoried and charged by student workers or interns, sometimes at the same time as they’re sanitizing and reorganizing the sensory room.

Do you have any unique or innovative spaces in your library? How were they set up? How have they been received? What challenges have you dealt with?

A bit about ADA Title II preparations

It’s March, which means the ADA Title II deadline for large institutions is looming near. I’m mainly the South and Southeast Asia librarian here at Michigan State, but I also spend roughly 25% of my time on accessibility, meaning that Title II is top of mind for me right now.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects people with disabilities from discrimination. In places like libraries, this means making collections and services available and accessible to all users. The ADA has been in place since 1990—it isn’t new—but there have been some recent changes, especially with regard to electronic resources, that we’ve been paying attention to.

I plan to talk about my own experiences here, so note that this post isn’t an all-inclusive guide. For more on Title II and libraries that isn’t from me, see these other articles and resources:

Electronic Resources Accessibility

At MSU, one facet of our response to Title II has been focusing on web accessibility. This means making sure that library users can access, read, and use library webpages and other electronic materials. Perhaps the most obvious example is making sure that screen readers can properly process webpages, but this covers a lot more, including captions on videos, color contrast in diagrams, and more.

And this doesn’t cover only library webpages; it includes anything that the library links to, meaning databases and other sorts of electronic materials. While the accessibility team as a whole has been focusing on much more than just e-resources vendors, this has been my big focus: trying to get language about accessibility into our licenses, ideally covering what would happen if a library user finds that a resource is inaccessible.

The BTAA’s Library Accessibility Working Group has some sample license language to use with vendors, which is what we start with. Then comes a process of negotiation, taking into account many factors including how critical a resource is and what, exactly, the vendor wants to change about our originally proposed license language. Lately, we’ve ended some negotiations by agreeing to revised license language and informing vendors that we’ll be revisiting accessibility when it comes time to renew a product.

The second part of all this negotiation is keeping track of the licenses and other information about accessibility that the vendor provides, such as a specific contact person or a VPAT. To do this, we’re storing information in our ILS. We use FOLIO, which is not without its hiccups but has been very useful for our purposes. In FOLIO, we’ve been able to create internal fields where we can record different types of accessibility information including current license terms. This is helpful when a remediation request does come up: we can easily check on our options instead of searching through multiple different people’s inboxes.

International Vendors

I have contacted a fair number of US-based vendors, who are aware of the changes to the ADA, but, because of the other 75% of my job, I have also taken on contacting international vendors. The ADA is an American law, but there are analogous laws in other regions, one of which is the European Accessibility Act (EAA). This act also covers online accessibility and applies to all of the European Union, so it has been useful to refer to when talking to vendors.

Of course, we also have vendors that are located neither in the US nor the EU, and negotiating with them often involves a back and forth. Being able to point to both the ADA and the EAA has been helpful in explaining to vendors why working on accessibility is important and how many potential customers this impacts.

How it’s Going

These sorts of conversations and negotiations are not something we started recently. We’ve been doing very similar work for years, going through our high-impact vendors, but the changes to the ADA have heightened our focus. Comparing recent responses to those from a few years ago, particularly from international vendors, there has been a marked shift. Many more vendors are receptive to discussing accessibility and to including accessibility in license language. There have even been vendors who refused to add in anything about accessibility a few years ago that have now accepted our proposed language without comment.

I won’t pretend that this hasn’t been a lot of work, both figuring out where licenses and subscriptions stand and then working with each individual vendor, but I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made. Most importantly, this directly impacts users, making library resources accessible and more usable for all, both those with disabilities and those without.

Are you also working on reactions to Title II at your library? How have things been going? Do you have any tips that you’d like to share?

Integrating interns with disabilities at the library

For the past three years, Michigan State University Libraries has participated as a job site in Spartan Project SEARCH, an MSU-based iteration of the larger Project SEARCH program. Project SEARCH is a transition program for young adults with developmental disabilities in which participants, often recent high school graduates, learn job skills such as how to write a resume while also working half days in various job settings. At MSU, participants work everywhere from the dining halls to the library, learning how jobs work and how they like different job environments.

Spartan Project SEARCH began at MSU in 2016 and the Libraries’ Accessibility unit started participating in Fall 2022. Since then, we have hosted two interns per year, one in the fall and one in the spring. The interns’ rotations in the library typically last about 10 weeks.

When we first began the program, we started small, with interns only coming in a few days per week, but more recent interns have spent four days a week at the library. This would not have been possible without the participation of several units around the Libraries. Usually, our interns spend between one hour and two hours working for one unit before moving to another, allowing them to work on a variety of tasks in a single day.

Currently, interns work on resetting furniture, scanning books for controlled digital lending, collecting books for reshelving, and checking in returned books. They also have the opportunity to assist with smaller projects as they arise, including installing exhibits and participating in user experience testing. Interns also tour other units in the library, such as Cataloging or Maps, so that they can see the breadth of work happening in the library.

Overall, participating in Project SEARCH has been extremely rewarding, but we have learned some things along the way. First, we would not have been a successful program site if the interns worked in only one unit. Having multiple host units allows for interns to learn an array of different skills and experience different kinds of work and work environments. It also helps to fill out their schedule and provides some flexibility as we respond to interns’ interests and needs.

Each intern is different, and though we’ve now developed a process that generally works, we’ve found flexibility to be key in making the experience useful for the intern. We train interns extensively on their tasks, with the goal of them completing their work independently. We do, however, always have someone scheduled to check in with the intern or to provide extra support and training time if they need it. Some interns feel more comfortable shadowing for a longer period of time, others work well when we double check their work with them, and occasionally some just want a bit of company during their shift. Again, responding to interns’ needs and requests has helped to make the training process and transition to independent work run smoothly. Depending on interns’ interests and abilities, we’ve also added or modified work for them.

Providing the interns with routine and consistency also helps to set expectations and keep the internship running smoothly. At the beginning of each new internship, we create a schedule that stays roughly the same, with work in specific units happening at the same time each week, along with some free slots to add in tours. We print a full schedule each week for the interns to reference and take home if they want. This helps interns to anticipate what’s coming up, know where they should be, and know who they should expect to see.

Finally, establishing methods of finding and asking for help has been critical both in the early stages of an internship and later on when interns are working independently. We of course make sure interns know where to find our offices, but because we are so often moving around the building or in meetings, we also give interns our phone numbers and encourage them to text us if there’s a problem. Because there are two of us managing the interns, group messages have been particularly helpful.

Project SEARCH has sites throughout the US and internationally, but it isn’t everywhere. If you’re interested in participating in a similar program in your library, I encourage you to look into similar alternatives as well. Project SEARCH, for example, collaborates with Michigan Rehabilitation Services, and there are likely other similar programs in your state. We’ve found Project SEARCH to certainly be a commitment of time and resources, but also completely worthwhile and a way to make a direct impact in the community.

If your library participates in a similar program or if you’re interested in starting something like this, I’d love to chat more in the comments.

Special thanks to Heidi Schroeder, who initiated the Project SEARCH program in the MSU Libraries and works with me on supervising our interns. This article in the Libraries’ newsletter has more information on MSU Libraries’ participation in Project SEARCH.