Agenda | More Information | Featured Speakers
Join us for our 9th biennial Adaptive Umbrella accessibility workshop! This virtual daylong workshop features interactive sessions about current accessibility topics, led by disability self-advocates and professionals working with the disability community. The day is geared to librarians, educators, and caregivers. Registration begins August 3 on Bloomfield Township Public Library’s web calendar.
Agenda
10-11:30 a.m. (EDT)- Opening Keynote: Supporting Autistic Patrons in Your Libraries**
Speaker: Chris Bonnello, Autistic Speaker, Teacher, and Author
Chris Bonnello, autistic speaker, teacher and author, will be talking about how to make libraries inclusive and accommodating places where autistic children feel a sense of joy and belonging. This talk will cover what ideal libraries look like for autistic readers, a range of different accommodations that libraries can make, and how to address moments that children may find difficult.
11:30-11:45 a.m. (EDT) – Break
11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m. (EDT) – Assistive Technology in the Library**
Speaker: Kelsey Brewer, Assistive Technology/AAC Specialist, Alt+Shift
Libraries are fundamentally built on the promise of open access, but true accessibility means ensuring every patron can interact with your resources, programs, and spaces. This session demystifies Assistive Technology (AT), breaking down what it is, from formal definitions to simple, real-world applications, and exploring who it supports.
Participants will discover how AT can foster a deeper sense of belonging within the community. We will explore practical, budget-conscious tools libraries could provide to their patrons, share free and printable resources, and discuss how to seamlessly integrate AT into your public events. Finally, we will connect you with technical assistance, and training opportunities to help you and your patrons thrive.
12:45-1:15 p.m. (EDT) – Lunch Break
1:15-2:15 p.m. (EDT) – Radical Accessibility: Building Belonging and Breaking Barriers**
Speakers: Annie Lewis, Director of Libraries, Multnomah County Library (Oregon); Suzanne Chou, former Community Engagement Strategist, Multnomah County Library; Jeanie Lai, Design Principal, BORA Architecture and Interiors; Katie O’Dell, Library Capital Bond Deputy Director, Multnomah County Library
Discover practical strategies to authentically improve library building accessibility for both staff and patrons. This session will explore concrete examples, including the implementation of multilingual signage; the creation of accessible restrooms with adult changing tables; the design and use of inclusive furniture; and the provision of lactation rooms, sensory and quiet spaces. Learn how new access to spaces creates opportunities for policy and practice change as well. Participants will gain insights recently learned from a history-making library building bond and learn how these changes can radically enhance the library experience for everyone.
2:15-2:30 p.m. (EDT) – Break
2:30-3:30 p.m. (EDT) – From Selection to Shelf: Building and Promoting an Accessibility Kit Collection
Speakers: Lauren Catoni-Ellis, Youth Services Assistant Department Head, Bloomfield Township Public Library; Deb Smith, Circulation Assistant Department Head, Bloomfield Township Public Library
You’re interested in developing a collection of kits to support accessibility needs or you’ve already started one. What’s next? Participants will receive a brief overview of the Accessibility Support Toy Collection at the Bloomfield Township Public Library and learn about one way the collection is promoted: an index called a Toy Menu. Discover how the Toy Menu was developed and implemented as well as the impacts it has made on the collection and patron and staff experience. Participants will also gain insight into the behind-the-scenes work that makes the Toy collection possible, including cataloging methods and the physical processing of toy kits.
More Information
All live sessions will be on Zoom with CART, ASL interpretation, and verbal image description.
We understand attending a daylong virtual event can be exhausting, which is why we encourage you to think of this as a virtual workshop “menu.” We will share Zoom links for each of the sessions 3 days prior to the workshop.
Sessions marked with two asterisks (**) will be recorded. Recordings will be available to registered attendees for up to 2 months following the workshop.
Featured Speakers
Chris Bonnello
Autistic Speaker, Teacher, and Author
Chris Bonnello is an autistic advocate, award-winning writer and international speaker, also a novelist and a former teacher. Since 2015, his advocacy venture – where he speaks about the importance of neurodiversity from both a professional and personal perspective – has seen him deliver speaking engagements as far away as India and Sydney Opera House (working with companies including Rolls Royce, Yahoo, Invesco and Toyota), in addition to attracting over 200,000 Facebook followers to his platform ‘Autistic Not Weird’.
Bonnello is a professional member of the Professional Speaking Association, and the author of several books including the Underdogs novels, a dystopia war series with heroes from a special school. Among other accolades, he was shortlisted for the 2023 Speaker Awards (Sustainability and Positive Impact Speaker of the Year), the 2017 National Diversity Awards (Positive Role Model for Disability), and won the National Autistic Society Professionals Award for Outstanding Achievement by an Individual on the Autism Spectrum in 2019.
Kelsey Brewer
Assitive Technology/AAC Specialist
Alt+Shift
Kelsey Brewer, M.A. is an assistive technology and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) specialist with over nine years of experience in special education. Her primary expertise lies in Early Childhood Special Education, specifically supporting students ages 3–5. Kelsey’s extensive background also includes serving as a MOCI teacher (K–5) and providing home-based support for students from birth through age 26.
Beyond her clinical work, Kelsey serves as adjunct faculty in higher education, where she prepares future educators and specialists. Based in Walled Lake, MI, she is an avid hiker and photographer who enjoys spending time with her husband and her golden retriever, Finley.
Annie Lewis
Director of Libraries
Multnomah County Library
Annie Lewis was appointed Multnomah County Director of Libraries in October 2024 after serving as Interim Director since June 2024. In this role, she provides strategic direction and leadership for the organization through creating systems that are rooted in organizational values of equity and inclusion and by nurturing organizational development to support people through change. She holds an MLIS from the University of Washington and a B.A. from Pacific University.
Suzanne Chou
Former Community Engagement Strategist
Multnomah County Library
Suzanne Chou works with architects, staff, and communities to ensure community voices are heard throughout design. Using a variety of methods, Suzanne expands equitable community engagement by centering communities often left out of public processes. Suzanne received her PhD in human-centered design research, focusing on improving design to create more positive outcomes for communities.
Jeanie Lai
Design Principal
BORA Architecture and Interiors
Jeanie Lai is a design principal at Bora Architecture & Interiors with 28 years of experience shaping transformative academic, civic, and cultural projects. As an architect and interior designer, she works across disciplines to create meaningful, community-centered spaces that foster belonging, reflect cultural identity, and deepen connections to nature. Rooted in a childhood love of art and making, her work blends storytelling, craft, and materiality—elevating spaces and bringing joy to the places we inhabit.
Katie O’Dell
Library Capital Bond Deputy Director
Multnomah County Library
Katie O’Dell believes that public libraries offer infinite opportunities to create a better future. With nearly 30 years of experience as a senior library executive, grant manager, and frontline librarian, one of her unique skill sets is facilitating an idea from kernel to completion.
Lauren Catoni-Ellis
Youth Services Assistant Department Head
Bloomfield Township Public Library
Lauren Catoni-Ellis started working in libraries in 2015 and graduated from Wayne State University with a MLIS in 2016. She has been involved in accessible library services since 2020, when she became responsible for the Universal Access Collection at Troy Public Library. Since 2022, Lauren has been managing the Accessibility Support Collection in her current role at the Bloomfield Township Public Library. This collection contains books, audiovisual materials, and a variety of kits to support accessibility and developmental skills. She is passionate about disability advocacy in and out of libraries and strives to make the world a more accessible place in all areas of life.
Deb Smith
Circulation Assistant Department Head
Bloomfield Township Public Library
Deb Smith is currently the Assistant Department Head of Circulation at the Bloomfield Township Public Library. She worked for 5 years as the Assistant Department Head of Materials Services, where she honed her skills in cataloging and processing materials, including our unique special collections, including the library’s Accessibility Support Collections. She has worked at the Bloomfield Township Public Library for 23 years.
Deb received her MLIS in 2009 and has been a substitute and adjunct librarian at various public and academic libraries throughout the years. Deb lives with her guinea pig fur-children and enjoys coffee, nature, Nintendo and way too many books, podcasts, movies and TV shows.