CELA was established more than a decade ago to provide accessible reading materials to people with print disabilities across Canada through public libraries. Over the past 12 years, much has changed in the accessible reading landscape. Our collection has grown exponentially, the technology used to produce and read accessible books continues to evolve, and perhaps most importantly, there is a growing awareness and commitment to equitable access in many areas of our communities.  

Our goal for our new strategic plan, which will guide our work for the next five years, is to build on our previous successes, address areas where we can improve and create a solid foundation that will serve CELA’s users over the short and the long term.  

The Process 

We began our strategic planning process, by gathering input from our staff, our Board, users, libraries, educators and our colleagues in the accessible reading sector.  

Surveys were completed by more than 500 people. We engaged users, educators, library staff and others in focus groups to expand on what we learned in the survey. And we conducted interviews with colleagues who support and work with CELA in the broader accessible reading ecosystem. 

This rich input informed the development of our strategic plan. Our new strategic plan combines our previous mission and vision statements, into a new purpose statement and guiding principle, and it defines the four main pillars which will guide our work.   

The four pillars of our strategic plan encompass  

• Effective service delivery & reading experience 

• Diverse, responsive collection 

• Reach & impact through partnerships 

• Sustainable, future-ready foundation 

You can read the full plan on our website.  

What’s Next?  
Our Board has approved this strategic plan and our staff are now working to create goals, projects and measurement tools to help us implement these broader themes into our day to day work.  

That work will be ongoing and we are excited by the prospects of what is to come.  
We want to thank everyone who participated in this process, who answered our surveys, and provided feedback in our focus groups and interviews. We also want to thank the consultants, Nordicity who helped us manage this process and write this plan, and our Board and staff who were instrumental in its creation.