Ep. 202 Creating Autism-Friendly Libraries Through Sensory Audits

Sunshine & Stories Episode 202: Creating Autism-Friendly Libraries Through Sensory Audits 

Episode Summary: 

Kate Compton and Suzi Tonini chat with Gloria Perez Alvarez and Terri Faulkner from Jefferson County Public Library about their innovative sensory audit process for creating autism-friendly library spaces. Discover how they're partnering with local autism organizations to evaluate everything from parking lots to programming, and learn practical tips for making your own library more welcoming to neurodivergent patrons. 

00:00 - Introduction
01:00 - Inspiration for conducting sensory audits
05:09 - How to conduct a sensory audit
08:52- Lessons learned from sensory audits
13:06 - Ideas for low-cost and/or easy-to-implement accommodations
15:30 - How to build staff’s awareness of the need for sensory accommodations
18:42 - Feedback from patrons about sensory-friendly improvements
24:02 - Advice for librarians on how to get started with creating a sensory-friendly library

Resources:
Autism Community Store 

Autism Is Welcome Here: The Access Approach to Inclusion (webinar) 

Autism Society of Colorado 

Bridges Learning Systems (curriculum for neurodivergent youth) 

Firefly Autism 

Sensory Friendly Space Checklist (Bridges Learning System) 

Sensory Accessibility Checklist (Association of Children’s Museums) 

Sensory Accessibility Checklist (Autism Community Store) 

Sensory materials toolkit 

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CSL projects like this one are funded in part by the Grants to States program administered by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services. The views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this podcast do not necessarily represent those of the Colorado State Library, Institute of Museum and Library Services, or the U.S. Government. 

Transcript

Sunshine and Stories podcast transcript for Ep. 202 

[music] 

Kate B: Welcome to Sunshine and Stories.  

Kate C: The podcast that shines a light on big ideas and bright moments in Colorado's public and school libraries. 

Kate B: Brought to you by the Library Development team at the Colorado State Library. 

[00:20] 

Suzi: Hi, this is Suzi Tonini, School Library Consultant with the Colorado State Library. 

Kate C: And I'm Kate Compton, the Early Literacy Consultant for the Colorado State Library. On today's episode of Sunshine and Stories, we'll be chatting about creating autism friendly library environments and programming through sensory audits. We're joined today by Gloria Perez Alvarez, School Aged Outreach Librarian at Jefferson County Public Library, and Terri Faulkner, School Age Coordinator at Jefferson County Public Library. Gloria and Terri, welcome to the podcast. 

Terri: Thank you.  

Gloria: Thank you. 

[01:00]  
Suzi: Gloria and Terri, I am so excited for our conversation today. Before we jump in, I just want to recognize an incredible Colorado changemaker, Shannon Sullivan, co-founder of the Autism Community Store. Shannon and her team collaborated with Denver Human Services to create a Sensory Accessibility Checklist, a tool designed to make public spaces more welcoming for people with sensory needs. And today, we get to hear how Jefferson County Public Library has been putting that checklist into action, using it to audit and improve library spaces and programming. So they're more welcoming and inclusive for everyone. So Gloria and Terri, let's start at the beginning. What inspired you to get involved in this work? 

Gloria: Well, after the pandemic, I became very interested in creating programming for neurodiverse children. I started looking for training, and one of those trainings early on was creating sensory friendly story times, and later on I found out that other librarians were also interested in this and they were creating sensory kits. And then I was recruited for to be part of this committee. Terri? 

Terri: So I started with Jefferson County Public Library three years ago, and when I came on board, the Early Childhood team, which is a three person team, had already been investigating how to show up better with sensory programming or sensory supports. So they had already done a lot of foundational groundwork for us, and they had even built inclusive materials kits that they then sent out through our budget to every one of the ten Jefferson County Public Library locations. And inside each inclusive materials kit, there are noise reducing headphones, and sunglasses and fidget toys, and a weighted blanket, and other support tools that are designed for any patron who might need that additional sensory support.  

That was huge, but about a year and a half ago, it made logical sense in conversations with the two teams that my team take over the sensory work partly because of bandwidth, partly because of passion to carry this into an older population as well as with our littlest patrons. So that is kind of the beginning part of that. 

And then, of course, I saw Suzi's amazing webinar and that also encouraged us. And then one final piece that kind of tipped this into action more than theory, was that I create summer camps every year for rising third, fourth and fifth graders. And last year, one of my camps, after the very first day, a mom wrote to me to say I needed to withdraw her child from the camp. It was a music creation camp and I was very concerned that there was something going on. And so I reached out to this mom and she shared that her son was a fourth grade student with autism, and it was the first time they had tried a camp since he was about 4 or 5 years old, and they were hopeful that it would be something that would engage him. And after one day they realized it was not going to be appropriate for him. We did not have an alternative for this mom and her child, and that was really heart wrenching. And so we realized we needed to not just think about it and research it--we needed to become active. And so we added then an autism camp this year. 

But in the meantime, we also recognized the need to get into our sensory audits and really understand the best room to hold our autism camp. That was part of it. And then how do we continue to expand our support and our services? So it really started with one team doing a lot of work, and then just recognizing the natural progression as we've evolved to try and address our patrons needs. 

[05:09]  
Kate C: How exciting to see how something can kind of blossom and start impacting all the other spaces and other libraries too. I know you guys are definitely a highlight for other libraries to look at too. Can you walk us through how you conduct a sensory audit? What does the process typically involve? 

Gloria: Sure. So we first create our group. We invite individuals with autism. We ask their caregivers to come and their educators. We also invite managers and librarians in charge of those locations we're auditing. And Terri is always ready outside the door with a clipboard and the checklist, and we start evaluating the outside part of the library. And the checklist says to mark yes or no or is this okay or not applicable. And then we write our recommendations. So those are the rules for the game.  

So the checklist starts with the pre-arrival to the library. And this involves like if families can find information in the website about the visit. And if we have maps or video tours, if the programs need registration. Do we have information about our parking lots and transportation? So, that's the first part that we look into. And then we move into arrival and we evaluate our parking lots. We also analyze if there are stops for public transportation nearby.  

And then we slowly move into the library. And here we look at the front desk area and we look for a person that greets us or not. We look for signs that help us figure out the building at a glance. The checklist asks if we have maps, if there are paths, if there are signs at decision points. And also another part of the checklist is safety. So are there strollers allowed or is it wheelchair accessible? And if there are comfortable nooks and if the space is not too crowded.  

So then the checklist has a big part about sensory environment: visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, vestibular and proprioceptive. And here, I think this is the biggest one, because here is where we start realizing that the library has flickering lights, that there are extra HVAC noises, that the library is too open--there are no divisions in the room.  

So the last part of the sensory audit is the accommodations. And here we're looking for feeding or eating areas, changing stations, and other accommodations for kids with autism or others that are not neurotypical.  

And I would like to highlight here our partnership with Firefly Autism. They are very close to one of our branches, the Lakewood Library, and they are an organization that supports individuals with autism and their families. So I think most of the audits we've done it with one or a group from Firefly Autism. 

[08:52] 

Suzi: Gloria, I love how thorough this process is: reflecting on barriers before they even walk in the door, and what are ways that the library can potentially provide peace of mind to autistic patrons or their caregivers, that their sensory needs are taken into consideration. I love that you are partnering with organizations like Firefly, and that will just increase awareness in your own community, that the library is a sensory-safe place for these patrons.  

So can you share with us what these sensory audits have uncovered? What are some of the changes that JCPL has made to make your library spaces more welcoming for autistic patrons? 

Gloria: Yes. So one of the more prominent aha moments we've had came to us by one of our educators from the group, and she told us that some individuals with autism have their eyes directed at the floor. And even if we have perfect signage at the library, they're not going to read it. So here we had the realization that we need paths on the floor to accommodate these individuals. We also discovered that most libraries lack signage at key decision points. One of our libraries--this is pretty funny-- we enter and the first sign we see is restrooms. Like, no, ask nothing, no where the holds are, no where the desk is. It's just the restrooms. And Terri took a picture of this library, and I think it's in one of her recommendations. So, yeah. Better signage for our libraries. 

Terri: Well, and I would also add that when we had the audit with about four teenage clients of Firefly, to Gloria's point, they were familiar with the teen section of that library, but we were asking them to audit the other parts, which became somewhat uncomfortable. And so their eyes went down. And that's where we had that aha moment about needing wayfinding on the floor as well.  

But we also recognized we were able to take our inclusive materials kit and open it up for them. We were in the children's area and instantly they all knew exactly which tool would offer them comfort in the moment. But that was only in the children's section. And before this moment, it wasn't available in the teen area or the adults. In fact, most staff in those areas were unaware that we even offered an inclusive materials kit. So one of our other takeaways is to not just have one inclusive materials kit in each location, but to actually have two. One that will live in the children's area and then one that will live in the rest of the area available for adult patrons and teenage patrons. So that was very helpful to discover. We were focused on children, and we really need to kick it out and be as open and available to teens and adults with neurodiverse needs and with that sensory need as well. 

Suzi: And I love that you were leveraging the expertise of your autistic patrons to actually do the audit. 

Gloria: Yeah, that has been very helpful. And also just expanding a little more on those sensory kits that Terri was talking about, when the team first made these kits, they sent them in a black bin. And it had a good sign and label, but no one saw what was inside. So you had to open it to see what was inside. So when we were doing the audits, we realized that a lot of these bins were under a desk or missing. So Terri and I, once at a library, we saw that they had them open on a shelf and a clear bin. So we recommend libraries to change the location to a more accessible one. 

[13:06]  
Kate C: So a lot of the libraries we work with across Colorado maybe don't have as access to funds or a big enough team to do a lot of these great renovations you guys are doing. Are there any typical changes or that are low cost or easy to implement that you feel like would make a big impact in a different space? 

Terri: I think there are several. One that is I think very low cost and this again was brought to our awareness by a mom. She had two boys and her older boy was always in danger of elopement--running away as soon as the car door opened. And she was torn. She shared with us that her son's diagnosis did not qualify her for a handicap placard, so she had to park wherever she found an open parking space. And what she described to us was the challenge of knowing that when the door opened, unless she was ready to potentially restrain her older child from eloping, she was going to be faced with that challenge, that choice of go after the older child, or stay with the younger child and get that younger child unbuckled. Like it was always that very terrible choice for a mom to make. And so she began to just drive through parking lots. And if there weren't close-in parking spaces, she just kept on going, because she just knew she was building a challenge into her experience if she had far-out parking spaces. 

Well, we realized that, okay, so we already have handicapped spaces, but that doesn't serve these families. Can just add a few more dedicated parking spaces right next to the handicapped, spaces that accommodate bigger, you know, strollers or closer to the building so that that danger of elopement is not as tremendous? That's very low cost. That's just kicking out a couple of extra parking spaces. So that was pretty simple and pretty good to make.  

And then one other thing that we are really pushing and again, low cost big return on investment. Most of our locations already had a nursing area or a nursing room, and we're now advocating for it to become a multi-purpose space with not just a nursing nook, but also to have that be an enclosed sensory room, when it's needed as a sensory room, maybe low lighting and some more controls in there that are really already there. We're just taking advantage of that space. 

Suzi: I love that. So how in such a large organization, how do you involve your staff in making these kinds of sensory friendly changes and understanding why they matter in the first place? 

Gloria: I’ll take this one. I think we're lucky to work at libraries because everyone has a calling for service, so it's not much of us to make them be on board with sensory friendly spaces and environments. But more of streamlined recommendations. Like we are a system of ten libraries and soon to be 12, so we want to be consistent throughout the system.  

There are some examples like the sensory toolkits. Those were created by Core Services, not by a location librarian. And the Core Services sent the kits. It had all the materials with them, like publicity, marketing, talking points for caregivers. So Core Services tries to make things easy for the staff, the front line staff. Also, along with these materials, they created a training that staff could take on their own time. And we have an online academy, it is right there and everyone can take it. We also, as Core Services Kids and Families, we met this year with the Autism Society of Colorado, and they came to do a class on autism one on one. And just to make things more available for everyone, Terri told me the other day that they are also going to present at our All Staff Day. 

Terri: And I would add that location staff have proposed some additional supports. They would like us to open one hour a week as low sensory time and we're open on Sundays. So that hasn't been officially approved yet, but it feels like the system might be leaning toward one hour of low sensory, low lights, low or no programming, just a very inclusive time.  

And then also the Autism 101 training really kind of highlighted the value of having communication boards at our service points. Again, that's basically no cost. And those I think I put that in the Columbine example. You'll be able to see what I'm talking about. But we've added, so we've added some communication boards just to facilitate simple conversations with neurodiverse patrons. 

Suzi: I would say an added benefit too, just as the mom of an autistic child, of those low sensory events is that it creates an automatic community--because when you show up, you're also surrounded by other caregivers or other autistic individuals who share a lot of the same experiences. And so just that community building is so important. 

[18:42]  
Kate C: I love how centered on the user you all are. You're getting some feedback from Suzi as a parent of an autistic child, what other feedback are you hearing from your patrons since implementing changes? 

Gloria: So I will give an example. Once I was at a branch and I knew a mom had an autistic kid because she shared it with me. So I showed her our sensory kits and she was so happy because she had the same materials in her own bag. So one, she didn't need to carry her own materials, and two, she was happy that we had an awareness and other families can use the materials and not necessarily they need to be autistic. Those kits are for everyone that feels overwhelmed that day and needs a little bit of support. 

Terri: We got some nice feedback when we offered our autism camp. Our call center recorded a number of patrons calling just to say they were intrigued and impressed that we were finally, finally offering some autism programming. I would say it's still early in the system for us. We haven't completed all the audits yet, so we still have about five more audits that we want to do before we feel like we've done the current round.  

Our South County location, which is physically already built but it needs to be renovated in the targeted opening date, is not until 2027, they would like to be certified as a sensory inclusive space. There's a special certification that they're looking for, so they're actually using the results of this audit to drive their design. So the work is still very, I would like to say we're well underway, I feel like we're still at the very beginning of what the capacity is for all of the results and the return on what this work is building toward.  

When we finish our final audit, we will be presenting this to management in a big presentation to really go through, location by location, so that they can see systemwide where everything is. 

They've already seen the ones we've done, so it's not going to be a surprise. And they're already helping us with some of these smaller decisions. We will probably do some rebranding as a system next year. And so a lot of what we're recommending can naturally be folded into the design. We're talking, as Gloria mentioned, that in-floor wayfinding, those paths can become part of our rebranding. So it makes it easy for us to kick that out to all of our ten existing locations and then the two that are under development. So, it's a lot going on. 

Gloria: Yes. We are also talking about helping families to find their way to the library before they come to the library, doing videos on how the space looks like with people. How does it look without people and how to get there. Our sensory hours, all of those things that could help children that are hesitant to, or adults that are hesitant, to come to our libraries. So yeah, just giving them the option to be familiar with the space before they have visited. 

[22:05] 

Suzi: Gloria and Terri, it's just incredible what you're doing. I know from personal experience it really makes a difference. You know, this has been such a systemic approach to creating sensory friendly environments, and thinking about that librarian who's listening right now who may not have the bandwidth to organize their entire system, or their entire school or university around this approach. What would you say to that librarian who wants to make their library more sensory friendly, but may feel overwhelmed or unsure where to start? 

Gloria: Well, I have a few suggestions. I would tell this school librarian or public librarian to do an audit of their own space. And there are many checklists on the internet, but they could also contact the Autism Community Store in Colorado. That's where we got our checklist from. And also a librarian could assess the visual clutter pretty easily, so getting rid of whatever is unnecessary. 

Terri: Yeah, we really took a page out of the webinar that  Suzi created with the phrase “nothing about us without us.” So we would highly recommend finding someone whose insight you want. Because the very first time we started talking about doing an audit, my three-person team, we were like, we can have this done in one month. We will just go, go, go. And then we took pause and Gloria reminded us, no, nothing about us without us. We need to not be the voice in the room. We need to partner up with the louder voice and get somebody who might otherwise be overlooked. So to me, that would be a very good starting point. Find the audit and then find an audit partner. And that is a great way to begin to see the world through different measures. 

[24:02]  
Suzi: Three cheers for Jefferson County Public Libraries! Thank you both for taking time to be with us on Sunshine and Stories. I know that this will be inspiring for others, and I know the autism community is incredibly grateful. So thank you both. 

Terri: You're welcome.  

Gloria: Thank you. 

Terri: Thank you. 

[24:19]  
Kate B: That's our Sunshine and Stories for today, y'all. 

Kieran: If you want to hear even more about what other Colorado folks are up to in their libraries, check out Libraries Learn dot org for all our past and future learning opportunities. 

Suzi: This podcast is offered at no cost to listeners thanks to the time, effort, and dedication of CSL Library Development Consultants, as well as our State Library colleagues and all our volunteer guests from across the field. 

Kate C: CSL projects like this one are funded in part by the Grants to States program, which is administered by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services. 

Polly: The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this podcast do not necessarily represent those of the Colorado State Library, Institute of Museum and Library Services, or the US government. 

All: Thanks! Thanks for joining us!  And we'll catch you next time.