Central Rappahannock Regional Library (CRRL) offers many resources for students with disabilities or special education needs.
For students with vision, physical, or print/reading disabilities such as dyslexia, CRRL provides Talking Books and BARD services, which offer students access to over 100,000 book titles, as well as to resources such as magazines, foreign language materials, and musical appreciation items (more information available here). For students with hearing impairment or deafness, CRRL has joined the Library of Virginia to begin the Virginia Deaf Culture Digital Library, which offers resources on Deaf culture and American Sign Language.
CRRL also works to ensure collection accessibility more broadly. The library’s print collection has materials featuring characters with disabilities and information about a wide range of needs, and educators are welcome to contact a librarian for suggestions that take into account student interests. Additionally, CRRL’s electronic materials--such as eBooks, eMagazines, the streaming video platform Kanopy, the video-based online training resource LinkedIn Learning, and other online research resources–have a wide range of built-in accessibility features, which may include closed captioning, font adjustments, color contrasts, text-to-speech, and language translation. CRRL’s mobile website app, the eBook collection’s Libby app, and the Beanstack platform used for reading challenges also offer built-in accessibility features.
For more information about these services, including how to enroll in Talking Books and BARD, check out the library's Access Services page or contact Access Services librarian Babak Zarin at (540) 372-1144, ext. 7454 or at babak.zarin@crrl.org.
