Special Needs and Inclusive Library Services (SNAILS)

Who was able to attend Targeting Autism in May? It was a great two days, crammed full of wonderful presentations. Most of the presenters were autistic, sharing their experiences and stories. If you missed it, they were able to film most of the presentations and have uploaded most of them onto their webpage. Targeting Autism 2019 video presentations The statement that summarized the whole forum for me came from Lei Wiley-Mydske:  When schools, communities, etc are not inclusive and/or accessible, it says it’s okay to exclude certain people. Our society excludes people every day, and we as librarians need to actively work against this. A few things came up in almost every presentation by autistic presenters: **AVOID FUNCTIONAL LABELS. “Low functioning” means strengths are minimized and “high functioning” means needs and weaknesses aren’t prioritized. High functioning labels are used to deny support, and low labels are used to deny agency. Labels don’t effectively describ

SNAILS members met at the Oak Park Public Library for a wonderful hands on presentation on Physical/Occupational Therapy and Storytime Yoga with Kristy England, OT, from   Therapy Yoga Gymnastic Rocks . Curious about how to integrate more intentional movement that can be either calming or alerting, as needed? Watch her excellent presentation and learn how to put together a yoga story. Kristy's video , on YouTube (55 min) Oak Park Public Library's Shelley Harris also presented on their new expanded Supported programming classes for kids with disabilities, including why she rebranded as Supported instead of Sensory, plus book representation, autistic communities, #ownvoices , and neurodivergent narwhals . Shelley's video , on YouTube (51 min)