There is an almost infinite amount of interesting reading material at the touch of a button these days, but what happens if you’re blind or visually impaired?
“It's important that information is imparted and provided to people in a format they're able to access,” says Lina Kouzi, Library and Media Services Manager for the National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI). Lina has been working with Dr James McIntosh, Chief Specialist in Toxicology at safefood for the last couple of years to create food safety braille documents and audio files.
“There is a training centre in NCBI and cookery programmes are part of that. We produced the safefood leaflets in audio and in braille, and they used them as part of the teaching curriculum,” James explains.
The 10 leaflets translated included Fridge hygiene, The ABC to BBQs and Cooking meat safely. Having them proved particularly useful for the food management course, which includes topics such as food hygiene and preparing for barbecues, according to Lina.
The leaflets are also available in Northern Ireland through the local libraries service and Libraries NI. In addition to this, the Royal Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in Belfast has distributed copies of the CD resource pack to all their community staff.
An unusual library
The NCBI provides a library service in the Republic of Ireland that is different from most other public or academic libraries. “Not only do we distribute books, but we make books, so we are a distribution and production unit, which is quite unique,” says Lina.
Library members can choose from a collection of over 16,000 titles in braille, audio and large print. One book that has proven popular among members is 101+ Square Meals. “The 101 recipes went down very well as it gave the client an idea on how to budget for meals and eat healthily,” she adds.
The print version of this book was the initiative of Limerick Money Advice & Budgeting Service (MABS) with contributions from the Health Service Executive (HSE), Limerick Vocational Education Committee (VEC) and safefood. It is available in audio from the NCBI library and online at safefood.eu.
Producing books for the blind
For audio books, there is a recording studio in the NCBI, where a reader and sound engineer work to produce the file. The braille process is quite different. The relevant document is converted into Microsoft Word and software is used to transfer it into braille. Once produced, it is sent through braille embossers before being added to the library shelves.
For those that are technologically literate, modern synthetic speech software can be used to read back information on most websites and in documents. Lina explains that, despite technological advances, she has seen the demand for the library service grow and grow over the past decade.
“Many of our clients are older due to age-related eye problems, but we cater for all age groups. That's why we need to keep our services varied in format delivery in order to cater for the different requirements for different age groups.”
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