SCHOOLBOOK CRISIS FOR BLIND AND PARTIALLY SIGHTED CHILDREN

Blind and partially sighted children throughout Wales are losing out on their education because they can’t always get hold of textbooks they can read, says a new report published today (7 November 2006) by RNIB Cymru.

RNIB Cymru is calling on the Government to act urgently to set up a nationally co-ordinated system for providing schoolbooks for blind and partially sighted children. 

“Where’s My Book?”, published for Right to Read Week (6-12 November), shows that teachers in Wales are finding it particularly difficult to get hold of maths and science GCSE textbooks in braille or large print. Not one of the dictionaries or atlases most widely used by 14 to 16-year-olds is available in a format that a blind or partially sighted child could read.

Teachers are reduced to spending hours photocopying, enlarging and retyping pages from textbooks to turn into braille or large print, so that their pupils with sight problems don’t go without. Yet despite teachers’ best efforts many blind and partially sighted children still get some books later than their sighted classmates.
Nine out of ten teachers surveyed by RNIB said this affected blind and partially sighted children both educationally and socially, leaving them often struggling to catch up with sighted classmates and feeling less independent.

Ruth Marks, Director of RNIB Cymru said: “It’s a scandal that in today’s digital age of instant information, blind and partially sighted children are going without the most vital of all things in school – books! Teachers are doing everything they can to ensure that children in their charge don’t go without, but they are battling against an inefficient system which the Government must take responsibility for remedying.”

There are over 1,200 children in Wales between the ages of 0 and 19 with sight problems severe enough to warrant specialist educational support. The Government’s policy is to include children with disabilities in mainstream education, so most blind and partially sighted children are educated in mainstream schools, with varying degrees of support from specialist teachers and teaching assistants. Yet there is no nationally co-ordinated system of producing or providing textbooks for blind and partially sighted
children. 

Nia Caron Jarman, parent of Mahred aged 12, who is partially sighted commented: “It breaks my heart that my daughter is unable to pick up a book and read.  Something that we all take for granted.  Large print books and audio books help, but there are many that are not available.  Asking for Welsh large print books or audio books is like asking for gold.”

Ruth continued: “It’s ridiculous that we have a system where the valuable time of teachers and teaching assistants is spent duplicating work. What we need is a central pool of books available electronically that teachers can download and adapt to the specific needs of the children they work with.  This is overwhelmingly what teachers tell us they want and this is what we are calling on the Government to provide.  RNIB Cymru is urging the Government to truly implement their policy of including children with sight problems in mainstream education, by ending the schoolbook famine.”

Today, RNIB launches the Right to Read Declaration calling for an end to the book famine faced by blind and partially sighted people.  Over 40 high-profile authors and celebrities have already signed up to the Declaration including; Ruth Rendell, Frederick Forsyth, Joanna Trollope, Jacqueline Wilson, Fay Weldon, Joanne Harris, Maureen Lipman, Andrea Levy, Alan Titchmarsh, Julian Fellowes and AS Byatt. 

If you believe that blind and partially sighted children and adults have the right to read the same books at the same time as their sighted peers, please add your name to the Right to Read Declaration at www.rnib.org.uk/righttoread.