Aids for Daily Living: Tools to help with vision, hearing, mobility, and communication

You can now borrow assistive devices through our library. The purpose of this collection of assistive devices is to provide you the opportunity to try out a device you may be considering for yourself or another and to encourage thinking about how assistive devices may promote greater independence.

Assistive Technology includes any device that is used to maintain or improve functional abilities of an individual with a disability.  A device can be high or low tech, off the shelf or specially designed.

• Search the library catalog under “Aids for Daily Living” to see the assistive tools available for checkout.  You may place a hold on an item that interests you and it will be available at the library within a few days (unless it’s already checked out to someone else!)
• Ask at the information desk to see a printed catalog of available items.

Try these products at your home, school or work for up to three weeks.

Please Note:

• You need your library card to place a hold in the library catalog to reserve the assistive device.
• The device must be picked up in the Library – no mail outs.
• Please fill out the feedback card included with checkout – postage paid.
• Checkout is for three weeks.
• Items must be returned inside the Library – do not use the bookdrop.

After you’ve tried it out:

• WATAP (Washington Assistive Technology Act Program) partners with the Northwest Access Fund to offer affordable alternatives for financing Assistive Technology (AT) for education, work, and independent living.
• Find organizations that distribute gently used assistive and medical equipment through the Evergreen Reuse Coalition.

WATAP is a federally funded program offering low cost and free Assistive Technology Services.
WATAP is part of University of Washington Center for Technology & Disability Studies

San Juan Island Library is making available WiFi hotspots. People over the age of 18 can check out a hotspot device for three weeks to receive internet service via a cell tower. The program is free of charge, and is partially supported by a San Juan Island Community Foundation grant. These devices won’t work in locations that can’t receive T-Mobile signals, but islanders should be able to get internet service in many locations, including while traveling.

Providing WiFi hotspots to the community through our lending library makes sense because we are increasingly dependent on internet access for work and recreation. Educational programs, including those available for free through a library account, such as Lynda.com or Learning Express, require internet access. And a new trend is that many independent films are no longer available in physical DVD format and are only available through online streaming.

The experience of other libraries across the country has shown that lending hotspots is popular for libraries like ours. The expansion of the T-Mobile wireless network in conjunction with Rock Island over the last several years means that many locations throughout the island can now get an internet connection, which may have been impossible a few years ago.

Check them out here.