Access:

• Resources for Creating Access
• NAD Advocacy Letter for Museums, Libraries, and Galleries: A detailed legal overview of why your library does, in fact, have an obligation to provide access. See the complete collection of advocacy letters for various settings here.
• ADA National Network
• ADA Requirements: Effective Communication
• Free online courses about accommodations and access from National Deaf Center
• Disability Rights Watch with author Sara Nović
• Change, Not Charity (American Experience): A fantastic 53-minute documentary about the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

 

Interpreters:

• Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (click “Search the Registry” to find interpreters in your area)
• Resources for Finding and Working with Interpreters
• Deaf Interpreter, Sign Language Interpreter—What’s the Difference? by Lorrie A. Kosinski

 

Amplification and Assistive Listening Devices:

• Accommodations 101: Assistive Listening Devices. National Deaf Center, 2020.
• Assistive Equipment and Technology: An overview of alerting devices, technologies, and apps for deaf and hard of hearing people from the Minnesota Department of Human Services.
• A Note From Your Colleagues With Hearing Loss: Just Use a Microphone Already by Jessie B. Ramey March 20, 2019
• Hear This!: Use That Microphone, Already by Kathy MacMillan: Includes recommendations of cost-effective amplification options for schools, camps, and libraries.

 

Communication Resources:

• Communication Tips from Deaf Cultural Resource Center (Library for Deaf Action)
• Guidelines for Effective Communication with Deaf, Late-Deafened, and Hard of Hearing People (Massachusetts Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing)
• Live Captions for iPhones: Follow these instructions to set up real-time captioned communication on your smartphone.
• Live Transcribe for Android Phones: Follow these instructions to set up real-time captioned communication on your smartphone.
• Special Needs Communication Guide: A handy printable resource you can keep at service desks to assist in communicating with patrons who are Deaf or hard-of-hearing, speak Spanish, or have limited communication skills. This 21-page communication guide was put together by The Library of Fanwood and Scotch Plains (New Jersey, USA), and contains English, Spanish, and fingerspelled words, as well as pictures for common concepts and items in the library setting.
• Boogie Boards: These simple writing tablets allow you to write with anything and clear the screen with a button press.

 

Deaf Culture Resources:

• Deaf Culture PEPNet Tipsheet by Professor Linda Siple, Assistant Professor Leslie Greer, and Associate Professor Barbra Ray Holcomb, all of the Department of American Sign Language and Interpreting Education, National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY.
• Maryland Deaf Culture Digital Library: https://www.marylanddcdl.org
• Audism Unveiled (DVD). (DawnSignPress, 2008): A must-watch documentary (1 hour) featuring Deaf people sharing their experiences with audism (discrimination based on hearing status).