Right to read must be extended to everyone

Published on Wednesday 7 January 2009 09:25

THIS week marks the bicentenary of the birth of Louis Braille, the Frenchman who invented the world-famous system of raised dots. Braille, himself blind since the age of four, allowed people with sight loss to read again.

But 200 years on, many still struggle to access literature in a format they can understand. Why? Because only four per cent of books published are ever made available in formats such as braille or audio.

For those that are, they are usually produced long after they're available in mainstream bookshops. And to buy a commercially produced full-length audio book can cost five or six times that of a normal paperback.

Actually, most such books continue to be produced by voluntary sector bodies dependent on public donations. This leaves blind and partially sighted people reliant on charity to provide them with the basic right to read.

And it's not just reading for leisure. More than 1000 blind or partially sighted school pupils across Scotland now attend mainstream schools, but very few books, study guides or past exam papers are transcribed into accessible formats. Too often, teachers are reduced to crudely photocopying and enlarging pages of text and diagrams. In some cases, materials for pupils with sight loss have been provided weeks after a lesson.

The Royal National Institute of Blind People Scotland is pressing for a Scottish educational transcription service that will produce such educational material to a consistent professional standard. We are also working with commercial publishers to produce more books – fiction and non-fiction – in accessible formats.

Louis Braille enabled people with sight loss to actively engage with the world again. But the books must actually be available for them to be able to read them.

What better commemoration of Braille's work in 2009 than a pledge that everyone should be able to fulfil their right to read?

Ian Brown is spokesperson for RNIB Scotland