Introduction
The importance of books for the visually impaired population
Visually
impaired people often do not have access to books published by mainstream publishers.They
rely instead on the adapted book industry that makes these books accessible
to them by transcribing or adapting them to their needs.
Adapted books are crucially important to blind and visually impaired people
around the world, both for leisure and for learning. Perhaps even more so than
for sighted people, these books represent a pathway to education and also to
self-reliance, independence and integration into society.
The wide diversity of the adapted publishing industry
What is striking when researching the adaptive book sector is the wide and ever
increasing choice of books available to the visually impaired reader today.
Compared with the situation a few decades ago, the choice of books, both in
format and in titles available has widely increased. A visually impaired person
may now have the choice between reading a textbook in Braille, listening to
a novel on an audio-tape, enjoying a tactile book with a young child, reading
a cookery book in large print or listening to a speech synthesized article downloaded
from the Internet. The adapted book industry is a constantly developing and
innovating sector and there is widespread excitement surrounding issues such
as technical progress, recently set up projects on the Internet and also around
the new implications arising from increasing government involvement and new
copyright legislation.
Developments and difficulties of the adapted book sector
However, and this may seem paradoxical in regard of technological progress,
the demand for books by the visually impaired population is far from being satisfied.
There are of course wide discrepancies between different countries, in production,
costs and availability, but books for the visually impaired are still on the
whole very expensive to produce, and the price of the accompanying material
and technical aids is often prohibitive. There are difficulties of access, problems
of copyright and distribution which all have to be tackled. One domain in which
the lack of adapted books seems to be the most sorely felt is in children’s
books. Because of the relatively small number of visually impaired children
in the developed world, this is a very small market to cater for. Both textbooks
and leisure books for children are however, a necessity: Parents of young visually
impaired children know that books are the greatest mean of providing both intellectual
stimulation and enjoyment and a way of accessing the outside world. They are
particularly concerned that their children should not miss out.
The publishing of books for the visually impaired is nowadays a fast changing
and innovating sector, with on-demand publishing and the Internet providing
new hopes and challenges. It is also perhaps the sector of publishing for which
communication and interaction between publishers, readers, associations and
governments are the most necessary to overcome the difficulties, that, by its
very nature, it has to face.
After recapitulating a few facts and figures concerning the visually impaired
population whom these books concern, I will proceed to study the different existing
formats of adaptive books: Braille and tactile books, large print, audio books
and electronic books. I will try to give a large place to the reflections of
publishers, readers and other specialists that are involved in this industry.
For the purpose of simplicity, the information collected here relates mainly
to three countries: the UK, France and the USA. I have briefly examined some
of the issues facing the developing word in a separate chapter. Because I found
that the area facing the greatest difficulties was publishing for the young
visually impaired, I have often tried to include this aspect of the adapted
publishing industry and the specific issues it faces, for each different book
format examined.