Children Challenged By Autism Can Now Go To The Library In Camden County

VOORHEES, NJ (CBS) -- Autistic children can sometimes suffer from hearing sensitivity. A pair of Camden County libraries have received special headphones to help those children cope.

Fifty noise cancelling headphones are now available at library branches in Voorhees and Winslow Township. Kids can borrow the headphones to protect themselves from noises that might otherwise cause them to act up in the library.

County freeholder Bill Moen says a college graduate student took it upon herself to make it all happen.

"She had, through a school project, decided that she wanted to take up this initiative for the Camden County library system to raise funds through GoFundMe to purchase these products," Moen told KYW Newsradio.

Emily Whitley, a student at The College of New Jersey, just outside Trenton, raised more than a thousand dollars.

Now, thanks to Whitley, children who might never venture in a library can do so.

"These headphones would allow them to come to the library, put the headphones on, read a book, interact, and really enjoy the library in many ways that are often taken for granted for many of the other attendees just day to day," Moen added.

The start of a trend? Could be, he says, depending on how many children actually use those headphones at the two branches.