I work in a private school that has many children with autism. In the past a
number of our students have worked as library aids. This is really sad that
you've been ignored or rejected. I once had to talk rather firmly with a
local public librarian who wanted to deny some of our students over 18 a
library card!
If there is anyway I can help please let me know.
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I have an autistic student that is assigned to me as a student assistant.
He is a senior this year. He did some job training in the library last
year. He and another student delivered newspapers to the staff. That
worked really well, but this year he isn't available during 1st period.
Last year he came into the library with his Special Ed teacher or assistant
several times a week. They fronted the books and straightened the
magazines.
This year his daily job is to straighten and front the books. We have
worked on finding other jobs that he likes, but don't cause him frustration.
Some things that have worked for us include : fronting and straightening
books, stamping school name in books, sorting books (limited), marking
weeded books, and cleaning shelves. Shelving books isn't something that he
can understand; but he does find those books stuck behind others and placed
on top of the rows. My shelves look very neat and organized. Though he
reads fairly well; he doesn't really like reading. He also doesn't want to
do anything that he thinks will make others laugh at him. He does have a
great knowledge of movies, music, actors and singers, so he loves reading
the entertainment magazines. He hopes to get a job at a local music and
book store. To be truthful, he is one of my more reliable workers. I can
depend on him to come in and get to work everyday.
I think that in the right situation an autistic student could work in a
library. (As long as the employer understands autism and is willing to make
the proper adjustments.)
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I manage the centralized library automated indexing system for 107 library
locations (index as 1.4 million items). Over 100,000 new titles are added
to the library index in a year. I had this individual searching for
WORLDCAT printouts in OCLC for new titles to be added to the system. He did
very well with accuracy using the ISBN number to retrieve the item from
OCLC. He loved handling the new materials.
He never did talk or chat. But occasionally we would get a request from him
that he wanted to "borrow" a resource for overnight before it was available
for circulation at one of our library sites.
Some of my colleagues in the field were concerned with his size and refused
to put him to work shelving books. I never had that concern. His mother
said he would never give me a problem because he loved helping me at the
department.
A tool call the ALPHA SMART machine is useful for folks who need to write
messages for communications. That has been used in the past when needed.
One time I had a multiple handicapped individual in a wheelchair and didn't
have a wide door accessible bathroom that needed to be fixed to accommodate
this individual. So someone from the family would come in to take care of
this concern.
Most of my experiences worked out fine and I always got help from resource
experts when it was new for the staff.
Ada G. Kent, Librarian
Ohio School for the Deaf
500 Morse Road
Columbus, OH 43214
agkent@columbus.rr.com
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