Library Services for Users with Disabilities

From the Association of Research Libraries comes a SPEC Kit specifically geared toward serving library patrons with disabilities. According to the text, "SPEC Kits contain the most valuable, up-to-date information on the latest issues of concern to libraries and librarians today." The book, SPEC Kit 321: Services for users with disabilities provides an executive summary, survey questions and responses, and responding institutions. It then offers representative documents on some of the following topics: Service Policies/Statements, Online Forms, Assistive Technology, User Needs Agreements, and more.

Interested? Email us at cedir@indiana.edu to check out this title. Or try using worldcat.org to find it in a library near you.

Inkling

Love using your iPad for higher education? Need better accessibility for it? Inkling offers just that and more. According to its website: "Inkling isn’t about books on a screen. It’s about redefining how you work with your learning content and improving how you learn." Inkling is a free iPad app from iTunes. You can purchase select chapters of textbooks or whole titles directly within the application.

Inkling founder and CEO Matt MacInnis says, "Our first goal was to ensure that everything a user could do in the application could also be done by someone with a visual impairment. Users with visual impairments can access their contacts, purchase content, search the book and even jump from figure to figure within the title, all without seeing the display."

Want more information? Go to: http://www.inkling.com/

Educational Symposium on Traumatic Brain Injury and Substance Abuse

The Bloomington Brain Injury Local Support Network is hosting its first of four 2011 Educational Symposiums on Wednesday February 16th. The topic is TBI and Substance Use: Why Community Health Professionals Need to Ask “What if There’s Brain Injury?”

The Symposium will be held in the Bloomington Hospital’s Wegmiller Auditorium from 7:00 to 8:30 a.m. and is free and open to all interested parties. No registration required.

Trainings Scheduled for Benefits Information Specialists

Indiana’s Benefits Information Network liaisons are certified professionals who specialize in helping people with disabilities and their families understand benefits eligibility, work incentives, and other supports. Currently, there are 192 BIN liaisons, most of whom serve Vocational Rehabilitation Services’ customers from disability service provider organizations around the state.

The Indiana Institute’s Center on Community Living and Careers is offering several Basic- and Advanced-level BIN trainings throughout the year in various locations around the state. Download the 2011 Indiana BIN Liaison Training brochure at http://www.iidc.indiana.edu/styles/iidc/defiles/CCLC/BIN/BIN_Liaison_2011_brochure.pdf. The Benefits Information Network is funded by Indiana Medicaid Infrastructure Grant CFDA #93.768. For more information on the Benefits Information Network, contact Larry Schaaf at ljschaaf@indiana.edu or call the Center on Community Living and Careers at (812) 855-6508.