Library staff are trained to appreciate the needs of Deaf and
hard of hearing library users, and while there are very few staff
who can use British Sign Language they will do their best to
communicate by the most appropriate method.
Larger libraries are fitted with an induction loop at the counter
or enquiry desk. Some libraries are equipped with minicom
textphones, and there is also a general textphone number at Library
Headquarters.
There is a special Collection on
Deafness, located at Library Headquarters but accessible
through any Cheshire Library, where catalogues of the
collection are also available. The collection includes British Sign
Language learning materials in a variety of formats, open captioned
videos (which need no special caption reader to access them) and a
range of books on deafness issues. DVDs, which are available in
most libraries, almost always have captions and again do not need a
caption reader. Most of the videos available in the libraries have
closed captions, which means that they do need a video caption
reader. We have a few of these caption readers available for
loan.
