Plano Public Library wins statewide award for disability work program

Plano Public Library has turned a branch library into a first workplace for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and more than 30 participants have moved through the program since 2021 into jobs in data entry, food service, retail, hospital environmental services and customer service.

That Work Experience Program earned the Texas Library Association’s Libraries Change Communities Award on March 30 at the group’s annual conference in Houston. The recognition goes to collaborative library efforts that can be adapted elsewhere, putting Plano in a recent line of Texas libraries being honored for work that reaches beyond books and circulation desks.

The program links the five-branch municipal system with My Possibilities, Plano ISD’s Charmaine Solomon Adult Transition Center and LifePath Systems to place adults in part-time, structured roles inside library branches. Participants shelve materials, help with customer service and support library events, while staff members are trained to use inclusive language and give positive reinforcement in a setting designed for growth. Cecily Ponce de Leon, assistant director of Plano Public Library, said the effort "has transformed staff perspectives and led to increased staff confidence, empathy, and initiative to identify ways to make library spaces and services more accessible."

Ian Smith, a learning instructor with the Solomon Center, said students "experienced being valued team members rather than just visitors in a public space," and praised staff for modeling inclusive language. The program’s early roots included a 2021 pilot at Haggard Library, where four volunteers completed 261 internship hours over seven weeks. What started as a local experiment has become a practical pathway into work for residents who often face steep barriers in the labor market.

That larger need is clear in Collin County, where recent Census estimates put the population near 1.25 million and show about 5.8% of residents under 65 living with a disability. Nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said 22.7% of people with a disability were employed in 2024, a gap that makes supported entry-level work programs especially valuable. Plano leaders say they plan to expand the initiative and increase placements, giving the library a bigger role in the region’s employment network while showing how public institutions can help build independence as well as access.