The ORL strives to support patrons with diverse needs through a variety of different collections, programs, and services.

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Services

Print Disabled Memberships

Your library membership needs to have print disability status to access collections created especially for users with print disabilities.  The following forms are used to create this update:

• Individual Print Disability form
• Corporate (Organization) Print Disability form

Please complete the appropriate form and mail it back to access@orl.bc.ca so we can update your library record and get you started.

Selection Service

We love to connect with people to help improve their access to library services.  We focus on providing selection service for print disabled customers where we select physical materials specific to patron’s wants and get these requests to their local branch for pick-up.  Most print disabled customers either pick-up their material themselves or they have a family member or friend pick-up for them.

Please contact Access Services for more information:

• Email – access@orl.bc.ca 
• Call – 778-658-6394

Accessible Borrowing

Extended loans are available to customers who are homebound temporarily or on a continued basis due to illness or other disability. An extended loan period of 42 days is applied to all eligible items borrowed. Some borrowing restrictions apply. Please inquire at your local library branch for further information.

In Branch Resources

Friendly staff at all library branches are available to help. Library branches strive to be accessible.  Some branches offer additional accessible equipment such as automatic doors, elevators, accessible bathrooms, walkers, wheelchairs, BlindSquare beacon, hearing loops, and a computer with ZoomText Magnifying software.

Some library branches partner with local organizations to provide home delivery of library materials to homebound customers. Please ask at your local library branch if home delivery is available in your community.

• COVID-19: Accessible Information is a page of alternative accessible formats of the charts and graphics that news sites, public health agencies, universities and other organizations are using to explain COVID-19 data in easy to understand ways. NNELS created these accessible versions so people with print disabilities or individuals with slower internet connections could access the same data. The alternate accessible formats include text descriptions and sonifications (audio versions of graphs).
• Diversability Service Provider Resource List is a list of service providers [PDF] in the Central, North, and South Okanagan regions, created by our librarians, for parents of children and teens.

Programs

The Readers

The Readers is a place to connect with others and discuss books with fellow book lovers.  Join our conference line and share your thoughts on each week’s themed topic or question.

The Readers is held every Tuesday afternoon from 2:00pm-3:00pm (see Calendar).

Please register through the online calendar or email access@orl.bc.ca to receive the phone number and access code.

If you cannot make our live session – join the conversation online. We will post the question of the week on the Downtown Kelowna, Rutland, and Mission Libraries Facebook page.

We have listed the books previously discussed in a PDF document.

American Sign Language (ASL) Programming

• ASL Story Time - Join a Deaf storyteller and a children's librarian for stories, songs, rhymes, and crafts presented in both American Sign Language and English.
• ASL Basics – Learn ASL from a Deaf Instructor.  Separate classes for kids and for teens/adults.

Please register check out the event calendar to access the Zoom details.

Financial assistance provided by the Central Okanagan Foundation.

Collections

Online

• CELA (Centre for Equitable Library Access Collection)
• NNELS (National Network for Equitable Library Service) 
• eBooks and eAudiobooks 
• Bookshare is an American site that allows access to 500,000 titles and is free for people with print disabilities. Access Bookshare via CELA.
• Librivox is a collection of free, public domain audiobooks read by volunteers from around the world.
• Project Gutenberg offers over 57,000 free eBooks from the world's great literature collections, with a focus on older works for which copyright has expired.

Physical

• Booklists related to Adults, Children, and Teens with Diversabilities or Additional Needs
• Large Print books can be borrowed by everyone with a library card.
• Audiobooks are full length recordings of popular fiction and non-fiction on multiple CDs that you can listen to on a computer (with a disk drive) or a CD player.
• DAISY discs are audiobooks on a single CD for borrowers with print disability status.  DAISY discs can be played on a DAISY reader or any MP3 compatible CD Player (can play CDs with MP3 files). Connect with your local branch to learn more.
• DAISY players are devices that are used to play DAISY discs (CD players that can play MP3 files can also play DAISY discs).

What is a print disability?

A print disability is defined in the Canadian Copyright Act and is a disability that limits a person from reading print in its original format due to:

• a serious or total sight impairment or an inability to focus or move your eyes
• the inability to hold or manipulate a book, or
• an impairment relating to comprehension

Not sure if you qualify? Ask us.