Nineteenth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

Public libraries have a long tradition, and a valued part to play, in providing a range of services for their diverse communities. However, when it comes to equal access for community members regardless of ability or disability, the conversation in Australia has frequently stagnated around providing ramps, space around collections to navigate, or the provision of different collection types or media. Australia is not characterised by a strong literature base around library services for people with disabilities which, coupled with a lack of legislation and an adage of “do more with less”, means that public expectations of access for people with disabilities is not high. Further, public libraries themselves are often faced with complicated decisions as to where to allocate funding across the whole of the community served – with the result that people with a disability may be shut out of a key structure that ironically works to build social justice, equity, and autonomy. This may especially be the case where a person has an invisible disability, meaning that they must declare their disability or themselves as ‘disabled’ or never receive assistance. Using an interpretive paradigm with qualitative interviews with people with invisible disabilities, this paper aims to broaden the Australian conversation beyond the “accessible ramp” to look at the information behaviour, needs, civic engagement, and social inclusion of people with an invisible disability.