Availability of Public Library and Community Support for Patrons with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Survey of Coastal Mississippi Libraries

摘要

The American Library Association (ALA) Bill of Rights (1993) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) provide guidance on how public libraries can provide services for individuals with physical handicaps, mental disorders, and various other disabilities. With this topic becoming an ever‐growing area of concern, there has been an outreach by librarians to create and provide services to patrons who have been classified within any of the previously mentioned categories (Akin & MacKinney, 2004). One such group include those who are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), one of six neuro‐developmental disorders (Frazier‐Robinson, 2015), in which the individual can show signs of impaired social communication skills, unusually intense interest in an object, or difficulty is forming friendships with peers (Autism Spectrum Australia, 2018).