The Swedish Library Act stipulates the libraries responsibility to pay specific attention to people with impairments. However, no explicit definition of impairments or disability is offered. Findings in previous disability research show that using the term disability without connection to a theoretical framework leads to an understanding of disability as a phenomenon simply caused by the impairments of individuals rather than aspects of the environment. In the everyday usage disability is thereby commonly determined by visually overt signifiers as wheelchairs or hearing aids. “Invisible” impairments and social or relational aspects of disability is seldom accounted for. In this study, ten randomly selected present public library plans were analyzed through a discourse analysis, focusing on how disability is perceived in the plans. Findings show that disability is predominantly understood as a phenomenon caused by impairments connected to individuals and that these individuals usually come in second place when library services are planned and designed. Furthermore, the design of library services is also depicted as something that could cause disability, especially aspects of the physical environment and alternative formats to facilitate reading are in focus. The acknowledgement of attitudinal or relational aspects of disabilities were not visible in the plans that were analyzed. The overall emerging picture is thus a traditional view of what libraries and library use are, as well as a traditional view of what causes disability. Nevertheless, the responsibility to pay specific attention to people with disabilities is evident and a strong connection to human rights is thereby visible.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hb-32051 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Nordström, Anna |
| Publisher | Högskolan i Borås, Akademin för bibliotek, information, pedagogik och IT |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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