Exchanging experiences and promoting the production of tactile children books worldwide
The German Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted (DBSV) is organizing the haptiBOOK International Online Meeting 2021, which will be held on ZOOM on Saturday 12th June 2021.
The meeting aims to exchange experiences and good practices in the production of tactile books for blind, visually impaired and sighted children and to promote the production of this kind of books worldwide.
The program of the meeting will consist on the one hand of short presentations by the participating organizations that would like to share their experience in specific aspects of tactile book production and on the other hand of cooperative sessions in open space format, in which all participants will be encouraged to contribute with their good practices, questions or ideas to the development of this field.
The goal is to promote mutual learning and networking and to encourage countries that do not yet have tactile books to get started in the production.
The DBSV would like to welcome representatives from organizations that want to share their experiences and also learn from the good practices of other participants, as well as organizations from countries with no experience that would be interested in getting started in this field.
Background
Picture books are very important for the development of children. They spark their imagination, stimulate their curiosity, help them develop their ability to understand words and to focus and they introduce them to new concepts and the world around them.
However, there are hardly any picture books worldwide that enable participation for blind and partially sighted children.
Tactile books help children with a visual impairment to explore the world with their sense of touch, promote their concept formation and prepare them for reading in a very playful way.
These books combine braille and large print texts with haptic pictures and this is what makes their production so laborious and costly and causes the supply to be so scarce around the world.
Nevertheless, there are some organizations in different countries that have been working for years on the production of tactile illustrated books and trying to make up for the lack of inclusive books.
The DBSV has been producing haptic books since 2013. These books contain tactile elements that are interactive and made of different materials. Most of the work is handmade, so each book is a unique piece.
Information about the DBSV books and activities on how to use tactile books to learn about the world can be found at: www.kinderbuch.dbsv.org (only some content is available in English).
Key information
haptiBOOK International Online Meeting 2021
Event Date: 12th June 2021, 10 am – 4 pm (Central European Time)
Registration deadline: 04th June 2021
This event will be held on the plattform ZOOM, which is available for both mobile and desktop users. Participants can also attend the meeting directly from a Web browser. The registration for the meeting is free of charge.
Contact and registration: Eva Cambeiro Andrade, e.cambeiro@dbsv.org
The haptiBOOK International Online Meeting 2021 will take place within the framework of the project “Ein Buch für jeden Tag” (“A book for every day”), which is sponsored by the SKala-Initiative. SKala is an initiative of entrepreneur Susanne Klatten in partnership with the nonprofit analysis and consulting company PHINEO.