Volume 25, Number 2, 2003
Barbara Will and Christopher Berger Participate in a "Train the Trainer" Session
At the intial training, Christopher Berger, Research Specialist, and Barbara Will, Library Programs Consultant both from the California State Library, experienced some of the challenges faced by people with various disabilities within a library setting; then they heard and spoke with a panel of people who had those disabilities.
As part of the first training for the library teams participating in this program, participants paired off and followed
assignments - while in a wheel chair, with specially made goggles, or with earplugs - and got an inkling of what would
be necessary to make the library usable to everyone. Then they heard and spoke with a panel of people who had those
disabilites and who spoke candidly about their experiences with libraries.
Since a six-member team of state library staff was conducting that training, they participated in it themselves first in a train-the-trainer session. When the local newspaper heard about it, they sent over a reporter and a photographer, who were so interested that they stayed several hours and put together a well-done (and lengthy!) article that filled most of two pages, with three large photographs, beginning on the front page of the "City" section.