“Access to communication in the widest sense is access to knowledge, and that is vitally important for us if we [the blind] are not to go on being despised or patronized by condescending sighted people. We do not need pity, nor do we need to be reminded we are vulnerable. We must be treated as equals – and communication is the way this can be brought about.”
Louis Braille
209 years ago to the day, Louis Braille was born in Coupvray, France. he would later go on to develop Braille, the reading and writing system widely in use by blind people today. It is in his honour that World Braille Day is celebrated. It falls each year on January 4, commemorating his birthday.
On this World Braille Day, we are very pleased to be announcing our contribution to the literacy of blind, partially sighted, and deaf blind readers. It is an announcement we have been working on for some time but today the wraps finally come off.
It is with great excitement that we announce that the Camp Bowen Society for the Visually Impaired has now been made a publisher of accessible books by Library and Archives Canada as part of the new Camp Bowen Books Project. The project compliments our summer camps and training initiatives and will not be taking resources away from either. The Camp Bowen Books project aims to produce books in a variety of accessible formats including electronic text, audio, Braille, and others. We don’t plan to stop at the production of accessible books, though. We want to get them into the hands of as many people as possible. To that end we will be offering the books we produce to the public library system and through our website so that they can be enjoyed by readers everywhere, sighted or not. To find out more about the project, visit the “books” tab of the Camp Bowen website.
Like with most things we do at Camp Bowen, volunteers are central. If you would like to volunteer to become a book producer, audio narrator, proofreader, or have another idea on how you can help, please get in touch via the contact page on our website.
We look forward to making this world a more accessible place and doing our part to close the gap between inaccessible and accessible books. We sincerely hope you will join us on this exciting journey.
