Toolkit

Welcome to the Autism-Ready Libraries Toolkit!

The Autism-Ready Libraries Toolkit is the product of our research team’s three-year research project. Learn more about our research project by visiting our research page. Our team includes Dr. Hala Annabi (PI), Dr. Michelle Martin (Co-PI), Ms. Milly Romeijn-Stout, Ms. Christine Moeller, Ms. Tara Lanphar, and Dr. Jill Locke. This interdisciplinary group of faculty and doctoral and IMLS students have the expertise to study and develop early literacy programs for an organizational context inclusive of autistic children and their families. Our goal for developing the Autism-Ready Libraries Toolkit is to build public libraries’ capacity to serve families with autistic children nationwide. The purpose of this toolkit is to empower youth-serving librarians and library staff with the early literacy training and programming materials they need to provide autism-inclusive early literacy services.

Our toolkit website contains free online training modules and resources for youth-serving librarians and library staff in public libraries who would like to better serve families with autistic children. The Autism-Ready Libraries Toolkit can also be used by anyone with an interest in autism inclusion and inclusive early literacy practices, including school librarians, library managers and administrators, parents and caregivers, community leaders, and teachers.

We hope you will benefit from and enjoy the materials we prepared. Take your time exploring all the modules and resources. We tried to make the content as accessible and interactive as possible.

Our toolkit training modules address the following:

 

    • Autism acceptance and inclusion in the public library
    • Adaptive customer services for autistic children and their families
    • Autism-inclusive early literacy services for autistic children and their families

Our toolkit resources provide support for:

 

    • Identifying and addressing common barriers in your library for autistic children and their families
    • Creating and promoting autism-inclusive early literacy programs
    • Conducting outreach activities and beginning partnerships with community organizations
    • Providing information and resources on autism
    • Advocating for autism-inclusive early literacy services at your library

We hope that the Autism-Ready Libraries Toolkit will be a foundational starting point for you in your journey to learn more about autism-inclusive library services and early literacy services. We encourage you to continue to learn from autistic advocates and the autism community to grow your practices, especially those you serve in your area.

You can access the different parts of the Autism-Ready Library Toolkit by clicking on the icons below. We recommend starting with the training portion and accessing resources as necessary.