Ep. 113 Summer is for Everyone

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Episode Summary: 
Designing an inclusive summer program benefits everyone when you think about taking a Universal Design approach. Let’s talk about the what, why, and how of creating a summer program for everyone in your library’s communities of service. 

00:00 – Introduction
01:23 – What does it mean to design a summer for everyone?
05:47 – Ideas to think about and changes to consider
09:17 – Practicing cultural humility
10:26 – Take it a step at a time
11:41 – How we’re trying to walk the walk one step at a time
14:16 – Resource recommendation
16:00 – Closing 

References:
Collaborative Summer Library Program
Colorado Youth Services Library Network mailing list
CSL Kits – Tools for Library Staff (cvlsites.org)
History Colorado digital collection of John Fielder’s photography
Universal Design Guide
Colorado Talking Book Library
Rural Communication Access Services (free sign language interpretation services available on request for rural communities in Colorado)
Language Resources: Translation and Interpretation Services and Beyond from CO Virtual Library
Cultural Humility: People, Principles and Practices Part 1 of 4 (video, 7min12sec)
CU Denver Center for Innovative Design and Engineering (CIDE)
CO Department of Education Equity Toolkit 

Play, Learn, & Grow: 

The English and Spanish Play, Learn, & Grow videos and activity sheets are available online. To obtain printable .pdf files for the Vietnamese and Standard Chinese (Mandarin) tip sheets, contact Kate Compton at compton_k@cde.state.co.us 

Next Drop-in Chat: 

Join us on February 25, 2025 at 11:00 am to noon Mountain Time for our next online Summer Drop-in Chat. No need to register. Come when you can, stay for as long as you can. See you soon! 

Podcast theme music by Transistor.fm. Learn how to start a podcast here. 

Transcript

Sunshine and Stories podcast transcript for Episode 113 

[00:00] [music] 

Kate Compton: You're listening to Sunshine and Stories, a Kate-cast from the Colorado State Library's summer design studio with your hosts, 

Kate Brunner: Kate Brunner 

Kate Compton: And Kate Compton.  

Kate Brunner: Tune in every other week as we explore one summer reading topic. From colorful program ideas to community wide engagement to avoiding burnout, we have got you covered. 

Kate Compton: If you have other questions or want to dive into any topic further, check out Libraries Learn.org for our next live summer drop in chat date happening Tuesdays starting this fall. 

[00:40] Kate Compton: John Fielder began photographing Colorado's landscape in 1973, and he covered almost all Colorado’s 104,984 square miles. Photographing how the landscape changed over the past half century helped influence the passage of many laws to protect public lands in Colorado and beyond. His collection of more than 200,000 photos was distilled down and has been digitized and catalogued by History Colorado. You can view it through a link in the show notes. Visiting all of Colorado made sure John's work was inclusive of all that was happening in our state.

[01:23] Kate Brunner: On this episode, we're going to talk about different ways to think about making your summer program as inclusive as possible, including everyone in your community and thinking about how you can invite everyone in to participating in your summer program this year, and maybe, you know, get the opportunity to color everyone's world. So, I think we're going to start our discussion today with exploring what does it mean to design a summer for everyone?

Kate Compton: There are lots of different principles and thoughts around something you may have heard of, a term “universal design” or “user experience”. I think the original movement started in buildings but has moved throughout all the way to technology. But the idea is to think about how people are engaging with what you're creating and is it usable? Does it allow for diverse perspectives and diverse abilities, diverse knowledge and background knowledge and is it intuitive and easy to understand? Is it simple? Does it fit everyone's needs? And when we're thinking about how do you do that? Yeah, it sounds great. I would love for everyone to feel included and to design things that make sense to everyone. And I think a phrase that I love is to put people at the heart of your design.

And that really requires talking with your community, talking with your staff, figuring out what are the assets, what are the strengths of your community? And that also allows you to identify where some of the gaps are and where the gaps are in your own knowledge too and understanding that you know some things, and maybe you've really done a lot of work to make your building accessible and following a lot of ADA rules, but maybe you're a little less familiar with some cultural groups who have moved into your community and want to make sure that they're feeling included too. So, trying to understand where pain points might be for patrons and where you might need some extra support and understanding too.

And why do we do this? Why does it matter? I think the big thing is, yeah, as librarians we want to include everyone. We design these spaces and these programs for everyone. When you design for everyone for ease of use for your summer program you actually are benefiting everyone. Even if somebody doesn't have a visual impairment maybe the way you've recreated your bingo log does benefit them. Even if maybe they don't have low English proficiency, now that you've changed it and allowed for your signage to be in Spanish, now they feel included and they see themselves in your program in your space. So, it maybe isn't necessarily something they needed, but you do have this bigger benefit.

Other things to kind of think about is auditory impairments, learning differences, various cultural backgrounds, and one of the things we like to joke about is like the sidewalk ramp is the big example of this. So, sidewalks are only accessible to everyone if they have a ramp to allow them on, and we start thinking about, yeah, if you're in a wheelchair that helps you get on. But what if you are running from outreach spot to outreach spot and you've got your big programming cart with you? Now you can get on the sidewalk and into the building as well.

I like to kind of think about what does this look like at the end of the day? And I think one of the big things when we're thinking about designing is trying not to jump to those solutions. But it is maybe thinking about the languages you're using, the images you're using, whether you're bringing in interpreters. How you are using analog versus web-based programming and tracking systems. How you’re marketing and even thinking about symbols you're using might allow for different cultures to see themselves in your program and be included in what you're doing too.

Kate Brunner: Yeah, I love that phrase. Putting people at the heart of your design because it really gives you that opportunity for co-design, I think. You know, for involving your community more in. And the opportunity to learn from them, you know, about what would they like to see this summer? What would be beneficial to them? And I think it's also a place to get curious about why folks aren't necessarily engaging with the library in some way, shape or form? And what sorts of adaptations or expansions on what you're doing or broader perspectives you could bring to what your library is doing that would engage different folks in your community.

[05:47] Kate Brunner: So like this is a big concept. Universal design, you know, kind of fancy term, you know, has some principles to it. You know, we're talking about it sort of like a high level kind of an abstract level of things to think about, people to reach out to, centering your community in your design. But what would be some more like really like concrete ideas or examples you could think about that would put this into action and help build a more inclusive environment for your particular summer program in your community?

Kate Compton: I like to break it down and think about the different ways people might find a barrier. And so thinking physically about our spaces and our programs. And can you maybe change how you are setting up a space to make sure everyone has access? Or even maybe creating a space within your program to allow for people who maybe have neurodivergent tendencies and want to step away from this space and maybe want to be in your program interacting, but maybe need a little less interaction in that way, but can still be a part of it. Maybe you're creating kind of a space to the side that's a little less sensory overload. A lot of libraries actually even have sensory toolkits that allow for people to put on headphones. So maybe the music isn't as loud. Weighted blankets to kind of calm them down. I think also even just using adaptive tools in your art programs. Thinking about you know, are you expecting elderly people in your program and maybe you need to think about the seating in that space too. Are you having that program in the back of your library? Can you bring it closer to the front? And when we're thinking about people who have visual impairments or disabilities, I want to really highlight the Colorado Talking Book Library. It's a great resource and it's free for anyone in Colorado to get access to books and audio books to support that community. 

But I also want to think about this year. Our theme is art and that is something that sometimes is very visual. So thinking about how you're using alt text or even when I was traveling abroad once they had sculptures for every building that was in a city, and so people could physically feel what that looked like if they weren't able to visually see it. And I was trying to think of ways that we could even explore that and thinking about art that maybe has feeling and texture and how do we explore that? Again, putting a spark into the world and I’ll let you solve that problem. But I'm happy to be a thought partner there because I'm excited about that.

And then when we're thinking about making sure people can engaged auditorily, are you bringing in interpreters for ASL? Maybe even trying to use microphones for bigger groups and making sure everyone has access that way. Thinking about interpreters, are you bringing in language interpreters as well? Are you translating all of your materials? Are you making sure information about summer is available in the languages that are pertinent to your community? And then coming back to those cultural symbols, how can you represent your community and make sure that everyone sees themselves in your program? If we're looking at art, are you representing art from around the world? Are you making sure there's music and food that represents your entire community.

[09:17] Kate Compton: And I think that comes to this piece of cultural competence versus humility, right? There are things that you know about your community that you've already learned and you've spent the time learning. But if you can be humble and know that there's a lot of things you don't know. Even for me in designing this outline, I had to look up the language. It OK to say disability versus impairment? Do we use them both? There's always room to grow, and there's always room to know more, and if we can be humble and open to that experience, it's just going to be richer for everyone.

Kate Brunner: Yeah, I think that's a great reminder. That’s something I try to remind myself of as well. I'm always learning and I think it can be helpful to sort of adopt a sense of curiosity. Like we want to be curious about this and do the best we can and be open to feedback as we learn about being inclusive. And like I think that is part of what we do anyway in libraries when we are listening to our community. Or when we are, we want our libraries to be a place for our entire community. You know, we are looking for those opportunities to be curious and humble and listen and learn. So, I think this is a great place to bring those mindsets when we're thinking about inclusion.

[10:26] Kate Brunner: And I also think it can be overwhelming though. You know when you're trying to figure out how can I do all of these things at once? Or my library doesn't have the capacity to make all these changes at once or you know I have a really limited summer program budget. I don't have any extra funds. That can be really hard, but I think sometimes just starting small and again like talking with your community. What is one thing I could try this summer to make my summer program even more welcoming for folks in my community that maybe it wasn't before? So just picking maybe one thing to try is just a step in the right direction or one thing that seems sustainable for you with the expertise that you have around your particular library in your particular community. Try things, be curious, be humble, be realistic about what your resources are. We're all just trying to do the best we can out here, yeah?

Kate Compton: I love the idea even of giving yourself some grace around you aren't going to know everything, so enlist the community. Ask. The best practice is kind of involving them in that planning process and then it isn't just you that have the weight of the world is on right then you can get some experts from your community that can help design and think through some of these barriers.

[11:41] Kate Brunner: This is actually something we've been working on at the State Library level as well. You know, just looking for those places where we can start taking small steps to move towards more inclusive resources that we can offer residents in Colorado and library professionals that we work with. And so we've been starting with this sort of at the early childhood resources in particular and taking some small steps there. I wonder, Kate, if you could sort of let people know what we've been working on.

Kate Compton: Yeah. I think one of the first things is looking at our story time kits and basing a project on something we saw come out of the Center for Inclusive Design and Engineering, looking at putting in adaptive technology into those kits so that people feel maybe that they have some exposure to different tools that they might see in the world, and also allowing even our library patrons to experience some things before they go out and buy some of this more expensive technology. We're also looking at all of the books that we have in those kits. Do they represent all of Colorado. What about the music? Could it be a little more diverse? So, we're just flushing out all those kits and looking at them. How do we make them more inclusive? How do we make them represent everyone? 

And last year we also had some funding, so we were able to use that to do some translation work for our Play, Learn, and Grow kits which are available online now. Not only are in English and Spanish, but also Chinese and Vietnamese. And looking at also printing some calendars in Vietnamese and Chinese. And we chose those languages mainly because those are languages that we see kind of low English literacy rates but high heart language literacy. A lot of people in Colorado are speaking those languages and may not have access to that information if we were just providing it in English or Spanish.

Kate Brunner: So, we're just taking it one step at a time, one project at a time. And then hoping to continue to build on our successes as we learn, as we receive feedback on those spruced up, revamped story time kits. And on the new printables and the new early literacy calendars in other languages. So, as you experience those things, as we take steps and potentially maybe utilize them in your library, we're always interested in learning from you about what's working, what's not, how we can learn more. And how we can continue to grow and expand how we are thinking mindfully and intentionally about inclusion and what the needs are in the community that we serve. And then what resources do we have that we can utilize to, like I said, take it one step at a time, I think.

[14:16] Kate Brunner: Today we're highlighting a professional resource from the Colorado Department of Education, CDE’s new Equity Toolkit. The toolkit is designed to provide user friendly information and resources for school leaders in centering equity in their work to support positive outcomes for the students they serve.

While the toolkit utilizes school-forward language like school district and educator, a great deal of the content and activities are easily pulled through a public library Youth Services lens and adaptable in ways that could effectively support library professionals in developing more culturally proficient library services for children, teens, and their families and caregivers. There are also direct links to the state level and school district data that could support Youth Services folks in making data-driven decisions at your library. This toolkit acknowledges educators and library professionals are all in different places of our equity journeys, and that's OK. The tone of the material is very encouraging and demonstrates the importance of creating learning environments in our communities where all families feel a sense of belonging and success.

There are five sections to the tool kit that include understanding self, understanding others, and understanding context in the first three modules. These are followed by modules addressing implementation as well as reflection and evaluation. One of the most impactful pieces of the toolkit for me was exploring the Cultural Proficiency Framework developed by the Center for Culturally Proficient Educational Practice, which includes 5 essential elements: assessing cultural knowledge, valuing diversity, managing the dynamics of difference, adapting to diversity, and institutionalizing cultural knowledge. We've included a link to the complete toolkit in this episode's show notes.

[16:00]Kate Brunner: That's our Kate cast for today, y’all but we hope you'll join the upcoming community drop in discussion. 

Kate Compton: We're hosting these discussions all year long. All Colorado library professionals involved in summer programming are welcome. No need to register, stay for the full hour or just pop in to say hi to colleagues across the state. Details for the next drop-in session can be found in the show notes for this episode and on Libraries Learn.org the Colorado State Library’s continuing education calendar and archive. 

Kate Brunner: We'd like to say thank you to all the Colorado library professionals who shared book recommendations, program successes and other artful ideas with us as we were designing this year's podcast. This project is also made possible by a grant from the US Institute for Museum and Library Services. 

Kate Compton: Thanks for joining us and we'll catch you next time. 

[16:49] [music]