Braille House on mission to offer ‘literacy for everyone’ lobbies Queensland government for funding

Braille House on mission to offer ‘literacy for everyone’ lobbies Queensland government for funding
  • PublishedMarch 25, 2024

Wendy Sara was not much of a bookworm when she was a child, but as her vision grew darker she learnt braille so she could continue to read.

Glaucoma completely blinded Ms Sara at the age of 28, but braille allowed her to continue learning about the outside world.

These days she reads how-to books on knitting, autobiographies, and has even been able to play Scrabble with friends with the aid of braille.

“If you’ve got braille under your belt, you can participate in other activities with the sighted people,” Ms Sara said.

“I really love braille for note-taking and labelling — it’s not only just for reading novels.”

Since the 1990s, the Brisbane woman has volunteered for the Braille House library, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary today.

The not-for-profit library translates, creates and lends braille books to blind and vision-impaired readers across Australia.

It is the largest braille collection in Australia, offering nearly 8,000 books and e-books as well as various historical artefacts.

Seeking future funding

General manager Richard Barker said Braille House had received no government funding until 2024, when it received a one-off grant.

A man holds a book in a library
Richard Barker says loan requests for braille books has been skyrocketing.(ABC Radio Brisbane: Kenji Sato)

He said they would be lobbying the state government for recurring funding so they could expand their operations and make braille books more widely available.

“For every 100 books a sighted child has access to, a blind child has access to only five, and that’s the statistic that drives this place,” Mr Barker said.

“We have access to so much, and a blind person should have the same access. That’s a human right.

“What we do here goes a long way to creating that independence for people who are blind or who have low vision, and that’s what Braille House is about.”

Braille House also teaches braille to children or adults who have started losing their vision.

They print “double-vision” picture books so that blind children can read along with their sighted parents, and vice versa.

An Asian woman leans on a brick wall with a stack of books
Eva Lo believes everyone should have access to books.(ABC Radio Brisbane: Kenji Sato)

Braille House librarian Eva Lo said it warmed her heart to see families bonding over a book.

Ms Lo said her Hong Kong parents gave her many books to read as a child so she could develop her English skills.

She said she wanted to become a librarian to spread her love of books.

“I’ve always been a big reader, and I like helping people, and helping people find things,” Ms Lo said.

“I believe in literacy for everyone, and literacy for everyone should include people who are blind or visually impaired.”

SOURCE: ABCNEWS

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *