PRESENTATION

Presentation Description:

In 2025 Public Libraries Victoria formed a partnership with Aspect (Australia’s largest Autism specific service provider) to pilot accessible and inclusive ways of making libraries more autism friendly. This partnership project was made possible by Federal Government funding and will continue until June 2026.

We worked together with PLV and two council library services (one metro, one regional) to assess, recommend, and implement a range of accessibility and inclusion improvements such as autism friendly staff training, relaxed events, and visual resources.

This session will:

• Be co-delivered with Autistic presenters and library professionals
• Introduce developing autism friendly library environments and programs
• Share library specific case studies
• Use and explain Aspect’s evidenced-based framework
• Incorporate PLV organizational approaches at a state-wide level

During this session we will provide an overview of the process of the partnership project and what was involved at a practical level, including:

• In-person environmental assessments of library branches and programs, led by Autistic consultants. Case study: Frankston Library
• Virtual assessments of regional library spaces, led by Autistic consultants. This process was supported through research design by Aspect Research Centre for Autism Practice (ARCAP). Case study: Daylesford Library
• Aspect Autism Friendly’s approach of developing and supporting implementation of recommendations based on published research, the perspective of Autistic people and Aspect’s 50 years of service delivery.
• Developing autism friendly initiatives such as events, resources and training in libraries.

We will introduce the audience to Aspect’s evidence-based Autism Friendly framework to share how we did things, the foundation of our work and the library case studies, including:

1. Culture of Inclusion: Making people feel welcome, understood and accepted for who they are. For example: Hidden Disability Sunflower Initiative
2. Preparation & predictability: Providing information about what to expect, and what people are expected to do. For example: Developing accessibility webpages
3. Structure & visual organisation: Helping people to understand their surroundings and the process visually. For example: Creating library maps and improving wayfinding signage.
4. Sensory adaptations: Reducing overwhelming sensory experiences, forewarn about what you can’t change and provide positive sensory opportunities. For example: Providing Quiet Spaces.
5. Communication supports: Adapting your communication, giving time to process and provide alternative communication methods. For example: Developing communication key cards for facilitators.
6. Proactive Problem Solving: Predicting and prevent challenges. For example: Communicating hidden rules and sharing expectations
7. Staff Training: Delivering training that is strengths-based and positive, co-presented with an autistic person. For example: Delivering in person and online autism friendly training sessions to library staff
8. Review and Improve: Acting on feedback to support continuous improvement. For example: Reviewing and providing templates for accessible feedback mechanisms.

By sharing examples of effective library partnerships, practical case studies, key learnings, and systemic applications, this session will present an evidence-based framework for designing initiatives that meaningfully support and include Autistic individuals, by reducing barriers and improving enablers in accessing library environments. These strategies also will benefit many other groups of diverse people, particularly those with hidden disabilities.