Staff training & development
Staff will feel more confident about helping people who are blind or partially sighted if they have had the opportunity to participate in appropriate training. This training can come from a variety of sources and deal with the subject at a wide range of levels.
Disability awareness training
Disability awareness training is often provided by local authorities through a corporate programme that aims to cover the needs of all disabled people, including people who are blind or partially sighted. Such courses are valuable but may not address the specific issues relating to library users with sight loss. Library services may need to consider whether the generic awareness training needs to be supplemented with more targeted awareness of the resources and services that libraries can offer to people with sight loss.
In-house training in library services for people with sight loss
Some library services find it useful to create their own training programme to ensure that staff are aware of the resources and services that their libraries offer to people with sight loss. Some authorities use specialist staff to develop the programmes. It is a good idea to share the development and delivery of this in-house training at a regional or sub-regional level. Library services can work with local societies and groups of blind and partially sighted people to develop the courses. Many organisations will be very willing to help but please don’t assume that they can provide their time and knowledge for free.
In the Training courses and materials section you can see some resources that you can use. Please use the Forum on this site to tell us about your staff training programmes and activities. This will be a great help to other services.
