There are a lot of good reasons Bev Harp loves libraries.
They’re places where someone can spend time without being expected to spend any money, they encourage a peaceful and quiet environment, and their dedication to preserving and providing access to knowledge. Because of those aspects, Harp says they’d be great places for an autistic person to work. That’s why she was so excited to work with the Louisville Free Public Library to help them become an Autism Informed Employer. The LFPL was the first organization to ever have their entire staff complete the AIE program.
“There are just too many places where autistic people feel unwelcome. It is encouraging to find businesses that are enthusiastic about including us, who want us as employees, who see us as part of the community,” Harp said. “On the employment side of things, we’re still hovering around maybe 20 percent employment for autistic adults in Kentucky. This is largely due to misunderstanding of what autism is, fear of differences, and unexamined assumptions. Organizations like LFPL are making a difference.”
It’s a difference that Damera Blincoe, Library Services Manager for LFPL, has already noticed.
I believe that we may have several folks on staff that are autistic,” Blincoe said. “We’ve had many folks actually seeking to come work for LFPL because we have all gone through this training.”
This will not only help autistic employees feel welcome, but make the library a better environment for patrons too.
“Some autistic people and families struggle to find community settings where people are understanding about autistic differences. A place where people have to worry about being stared at, criticized, or even asked to leave is simply not accessible. Nor is an environment that provokes sensory meltdown,” Harp said. “The fact that all staff have been trained to understand autistic sensory and cognitive needs benefits not only autistic workers but should also significantly improve the experiences of autistic patrons of the library and their families.”
Harp and her team at Innovative Supports for Autistic Workers didn’t stop there. ISAW continued to collaborate with the library through Autism Acceptance Month in April, bringing a panel together where autistic workers took center stage and were given the chance to tell their stories about disability, accommodation, and employment.
Blincoe, meanwhile, was astonished at the effort Harp and her team at ISAW put into ensuring that library employees got as much out of the program as they could, even constructing a custom module specifically for library employees and coming in-person to Louisville to do live question and answer sessions, and then once again to present the library with a plaque for completing the program.
“I do think that it helps them to know that they are working at an organization that sees them as people,” Blincoe said. “I think it helps them to see that the library, sees them and hears them and knows that they are a valuable part of this organization.”
