Developing and Organizing a Community Engagement Project That Provides Technology Literacy Training to Persons with Intellectual Disabilities

摘要

This paper introduces an ongoing, award winning community engagement project and resulting service-learning activities initiated by the University of Alabama's School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) in partnership with Resources for Independence (RFI), a local nonprofit agency in Tuscaloosa, AL, to provide training in basic technological skills to individuals with intellectual disabilities. This paper presents the purposes of the project as well as its planning, implementation, execution, and ongoing strategies for evaluation and sustainability. The authors address the need for additional research in the design and efficacy of training types of service-learning projects as a means to give Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) students meaningful real-life experiences and to foster positive relations between LIS programs, universities, and communities.