Creating Welcoming Library Spaces: Social Story Project – Toronto Public Library

A social story is a learning tool that describes a new experience or a specific situation. TPL’s Social Story project aims to increase visibility and collaboration with children with disabilities and their families by addressing the following goals and objectives:
• Designing and publishing a social story that captures the experiences of children with various disabilities using the library to familiarize children with the experience before their own visit.
• Making the social story accessible in multiple formats and applying the accessibility lens to the design, formatting, and images of the story in order to render it as accessible as possible for multiple readers.
o A dedicated webpage for the Social Story was created for customers with links to the various accessible formats. tpl.ca/socialstory
o A print copy of the story is available for free upon request at all TPL branches across the city. Branches also have a reference copy of the story for staff to use in programming and outreach.
o A promotional poster was created for display in branches to promote the resource to families in the community. The poster has a QR code for customers to scan that directs them to the webpage.
o TPL’s social media channels, such as Facebook, were utilized as part of the promotional efforts.
• Fostering connections with both users and non-user families of children with disabilities, as well as the local agencies serving these individuals.

• This examples fits at multiple levels.
• Individual and Community Levels:
o At the individual and community levels, the project included interactive consultation sessions with children, families and caregivers and service providers.
• Programs & Services:
o The project team worked collaboratively with internal stakeholders including staff from the multiple divisions and departments including Communications, Programming and Customer Engagement, Children’s Services, Information Technology Services, Accessibility Services and Collections.
• System:
o At the systems level, the project supports the City of Toronto’s Multi-Year Accessibility Plan, which “outlines goals and initiatives that reaffirm the City’s commitment to creating an accessible City and advancing efforts in building an equitable and inclusive society that values the contributions of people with disabilities.”
o It also supports the City of Toronto Children’s Services Service Plan to plan and deliver “early learning and child care services in Toronto”
o It also supports the City of Toronto Vision Statement on Access, Equity and Diversity “The City recognizes the dignity and worth of all people by equitably treating communities and employees, fairly providing services, by consulting with communities and making sure everyone can participate in decision-making.”

• Yes, the consultations helped to raise awareness of relevant library services and helped to build relationships with families and agencies.

• Yes, the TPL Social Story project heavily featured listening and learning via consultation. These included consultation with:
o Partner agencies to identify the specific needs of their clients and provide feedback on the content and structure of the draft story. Agencies were invited to an interactive focus group held at S. Walter Stewart Branch to provide their feedback.
o TPL’s Children Services Committee, School Outreach Committee, and the Accessibility Services for Children Work Group.
o Participants at the Holland Bloorview Hospital Community Information Fair to learn about the library experiences of children with disabilities and their families. The TPL team led a story time program and craft activity for the families.
o Children and families including interactive virtual interviews. These sessions provided valuable feedback on the social story draft as well as library services in general. Virtual sign language interpretation and live captioning were provided as needed. Feedback received about the library was passed on to relevant stakeholders and service owners in order to improve library services.

• Yes, members of the Accessible Services for Children work group were inspired to submit a proposal to develop a social story in response to hearing from parents and caregivers of children with disabilities and those who are Deaf, that they often do not feel welcome in the library and do not feel represented in library promotional materials.
• A design thinking approach was used in the development of the library social story, which involved interactive consultation sessions with children, families and caregivers and service providers.
• The project also included investigation and prioritization of accessible, digital formats for the social story. In turn, it is available in variety of accessible formats including: accessible pdf, ePub, eBraille, video with audio description and video with American Sign Language.

• Yes, this project reflects action on increasing disability representation in media and images included in the Social Story.
• The project also represents taking action via staff engagement. TPL’s Social Story was one of the successful submissions in the 2019 City Librarian’s Innovation Challenge callout. Staff whose ideas were chosen were provided with funding, time, and manager and staff mentors to support the development of their project. In turn, TPL’s Social Story became a staff-led innovation project.
• The social story is now available in numerous accessible formats including accessible pdf, epub, video with American Sign Language and electronic braille which launched in March 2022. The formats are live on TPL’s Ready for Reading website. A print version of the story is in progress with the goal to have copies available for families to pick-up free at any TPL branch in 2023.