Issue 22 Autumn 1996 Visual Impairment and Children's Reading Needs Desmond L Spiers	Collections under which this       article appears:       Reading       Special Needs Related Articles or Resources Other Articles by Author

One of the questions I always ask participants at courses I give is: "What is the first image that springs into your head when the word disability is mentioned?" - the answer, nine times out of ten, is someone in a wheelchair, with a blind person with a white cane coming second.

However, according to a 1992 publication from RNIB, Blind and Partially Sighted Children in Britain: The RNIB Survey, only 10% of those children surveyed were reported as having no light perception, 51% could pick up a coin without having to fumble for it and 24% could recognise a friend across a road 1.

The figures for those able to read and write print were as follows: 82% of children with no other disabilities could read or write print, compared with 43% of children with other (mostly intellectual) disabilities. The total figure being that 60% of the children surveyed were able to read or write print, 56% could both read and write print, with the other 4% split between those either reading or writing.

For those children with visual impairment attending mainstream schools, 68% read ordinary print with another 16% able to read large print only. However, the figures for children in special schools, are that 18% read ordinary print with another 19% reading large print only. Of all the children surveyed, overall only 14% were Braille users.

Over the years the range of materials and specialised services available for children with visual impairments has expanded and improved.

BRAILLE MATERIAL
Proportionally more children with low residual vision are Braille users and it is still in the main left to their schools to provide appropriate material. Traditionally, children first learn the Braille alphabet and then the basic contractions (Braille shorthand) before progressing to stage one Braille and independent reading at ages 7 - 10. Stage two Braille introduces the full range of contractions. The big disadvantage of Braille from a storage point of view is the amount of space it takes up on a shelf.

The first Braille books excluded all pictures thus depriving many children of valuable information and enjoyment. Additionally, few sighted people could read Braille, therefore siblings and adults could not share the book. The next development was to place Braille text onto paper or plastic strips and to stick it into ordinary books. This allowed sighted readers to share, but the book ended up being bulky and illustrations were sometimes covered by the Braille. Linden Lodge School in London took this idea one step further and put the Braille on clear plastic sheets, which are then interleaved between the standard pages. The flow of the printed text and pictures is therefore not destroyed. Over 1,000 titles are now available in either grade 1 (uncontracted) or grade 2 Braille, to suit varying levels of reading experience and different approaches to learning Braille. ClearVision Books (now a registered charity) are available on subscription to individuals, schools and libraries 2. Books by popular authors such as Shirley Hughes, Tony Ross and Pat Hutchins are included, along with an increasing range of non-fiction material, all suitable for Key Stages 1 and 2 in the National Curriculum. Because Braille takes up more space than standard printed text, there is a limit to the range of material that can be produced as ClearVision. These books allow visually impaired children to read with their sighted peers, but additionally they also allow adult Braille users to share books with their sighted children and introduce sighted siblings to Braille.

The National Library for the Blind have a free lending service for Braille books 3. However, there is a lack of popular teenage fiction such as "Point Horror" and "Point Romance". The book, Ten Hours to Live by Pete Johnson 4, was Brailled after the librarian at Bramcote Park School, Nottinghamshire, had a conversation with the author over the scarcity of suitable material for her visually impaired teenage pupils. The Braille edition has proved a great success, but created a demand that now has to be filled. Who is going to provide the material and where is the funding going to come from?

TACTILE MATERIAL
Babies and young children are very tactile in their play. They chew, suck, rub, bang, push and pull practically every object that comes within their reach and will stretch for objects that they see at a distance. They slowly learn to relate the experience of playing with one object to a new object - that one was round and when I shook it, it made a noise; this new toy is round, will it make a noise?

Children with residual vision realize there is a world beyond their immediate surroundings, but need encouragement to explore. Children with no residual vision are dependent upon touch and sound for their experience of the world, but these young children may sit passively as they cannot 'see' what is beyond their reach. If they do have an object in their grasp, they may hold it very possessively (if I let it go I might not find it again). All children have to learn that though they may not be able to see an object, that does not mean that the object is not there. For those who can only 'see' through touch, this concept of permanence is harder to comprehend.

Additionally, children with visual loss will find it hard to conceptualize an object that does not fit totally within their hands. A large object has to be felt bit by bit and then a composite picture built up. Certainly a verbal description of the object will assist, but the success factor is very dependent on the amount of internalised language a child has. However proficient the spoken description, it will not adequately replace the child's ability to see the object.

The Living Painting Trust has further developed the concept of ClearVision by including raised tactile painted pictures (usually called thermoforms) as a part of the book 5. A recent title is The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which includes three thermoforms: one of the caterpillar before he starts eating, one of him after he has finished eating, and one of the butterfly he turns into 6. Additionally, each book includes an audio cassette, which skilfully evokes the scene on each and every page and explains how to touch and understand the 'feely' pictures. These books for children are a new development for the Living Painting Trust. Primarily, the organisation produces thermoforms of art work for adults with a visual loss; some of these could be used by pupils doing GCSE and 'A' Levels. Tactile pictures can help children with visual impairments understand concepts such as shape and size.

Mainstream publishers also produce tactile material, for example The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle, which is superb 7. However, a poor tactile illustration is worse than no tactile illustration. In many ways they are more suitable as a novelty book for sighted children. Other forms of tactile material include smelly and noisy books. The latter can be quite sophisticated and allow for a degree of interaction between the child and the book.

The most widely known type of tactile material is the pop-up book. Certainly they can be felt, but most of the enjoyment comes through sight and the surprise of the mechanical action.

Tactile Stories: A Do-it-Yourself Guide to Making 6 Tactile Stories is a useful publication to obtain 8. Another book, Toy Workshop, also contains ideas for tactile books 9. Additionally, many of the toys illustrated in this book are tactile and lend themselves to learning. Toys can roughly be divided into two types: those for pure fun and those which have development and instructional uses. The former could be a teddy bear and the latter a set of different size containers to introduce concepts of volume.

Morley Books produced a short annotated list of Smelly, Noisy and Feely Books in 1995 10.

SOUND CASSETTES
Stories on sound cassettes are also a valuable resource for those who cannot use, or have difficulty with, print because of the strain on their eyes. School reading, in particular non-fiction reading, can be done with print and leisure reading with sound cassettes. This not only includes those with visual impairments, but children with physical disabilities, language and learning problems. However, many of the tapes are abridged, which precludes a child being able to read with their eyes and ears at the same time. Chivers Press 11 and Cover to Cover 12 are two companies that produce unabridged story cassettes.

The National Listening Library provides a range of tapes for both adults and children 13. The cassettes are long play and need a special machine which is provided by the National Listening Library. All postage costs are included in the annual membership fee.

Calibre is another charity which provides sound tapes for those who cannot use print, but not specifically for those with a visual loss 14. They use standard size cassettes and the service is free. A range of children's material is available.

The Talking Newspapers Association (TNAUK) provides taped readings of Sunday newspapers, radio and television newspapers and other items of interest for a small fee 15. It is primarily aimed at adults, though teenagers would also find it of use.

LARGE PRINT
The heyday of large print publishing was at the end of the 1980s, when Chivers Press and Isis both produced material and Isis also imported Cornerstone large print from America. One year during Children's Bookweek, The Bookseller listed more large print books as having been published than standard size print books. However, Chivers Press are now the only company producing children's books in large print. Currently some fifty titles are available at Key Stages 2 and 3. The older child has a choice of adult large print available from suppliers such as Magna 16 and Ulverscroft 17 in addition to Chivers. There is still a gap in the market at the teenage level for age-appropriate material. Preschool and Infant level children can be catered for quite easily from the wide range of picture books and early independent fiction that is commercially available. It is important to check the type size and to determine that the illustrations are not too cluttered and have strong colour contrasts.

Non-fiction in large print is more or less non-existent. Oxford and Longman have both produced dictionaries in large print. However, no dual-text, foreign-language, large-print dictionaries have been commercially produced in the UK. A French/English dictionary 18 is available from America and a German/English dictionary is available in Germany 19. So far, we at REACH have not been able to find a large-print English-language atlas. The Oxford Infant Atlas 20 in large format and the Wayland Atlas of the World 21 (age 8+) lend themselves to use by children with visual impairments.

For some reason publishers assume that as proficiency in reading increases, so print size can be reduced.

LARGE FORMAT BOOKS
These are usually 20"x15" and would at first sight seem the perfect answer for children with a visual loss - bold print and large pictures/illustrations. However, some children may not be able to see the whole word and will have to read it a letter at a time to build up a composite picture. Imagine the difficulty with the word "Sphygmomanometer" which appears in A Checkup with the Doctor 22. An increasing range of fiction and non-fiction is being published, primarily aimed at Key Stages 1 and 2.

Electronic Aids
Previously one had to be able to type Braille to produce material. Now there is electronic equipment which allows a non-Braille user to transcribe standard text into Braille and vice versa. Reading machines such as the Kurzweil - which is similar to a photocopier - are coming down in price. The text is laid on top of the glass screen and can either be read as voice or taped onto an audio cassette. CCTVs enlarge print, pictures and illustrations via a special scanner onto a computer-size screen (it is important to have a colour monitor). CCTVs are bulky, but hand-held scanning devices which can be connected to a television screen or computer monitor are available. There is a wide range of programmes and equipment for connecting to computers so that text can be converted to speech, Braille to text, or text to Braille. The RNIB is able to give details of relevant companies and have a wide range of equipment and aids in a showroom at their London Headquarters.

BOOKS CONTAINING VISUALLY IMPAIRED CHARACTERS
There has been a significant increase in the number of books being published which contain positive images of children with disabilities and learning problems. However, the UK is still behind the USA and Australia in the range available. For details of titles please contact the REACH Resource Centre.

Librarians, whether they be public or school, have realised over the past few years that many of their clients cannot be served by standard print material. Some have created their own books for children with special reading needs and, as mentioned above, an example of this entrepreneurial activity has resulted in the establishment and growth of ClearVision, which has revolutionised the way in which children with sight difficulties learn to read. Authors and publishers have taken on board ideas and suggestions put forward by children and adults, thus making available a burgeoning collection of sound tapes and large-format books. In some cases, material initially aimed at one client group has proved very successful with other client groups, for example large print. The last decade has seen an increase in the range of material, equipment and services available for children with visual impairments, both at local and national levels. A new charity called Share the Vision is hoping to create a national catalogue of all these different formats and services 23. A central database such as this augurs well for the future.

For further information contact REACH: National Resource Centre for Children with Reading Difficulties.

Notes
1. Walker, E. et al. Blind and Partially Sighted Children in Britain: the RNIB Survey. London: HMSO, 1992 Back to text
2. ClearVision Project, Linden Lodge School, 61 Princes Way, London SW19 6JB Back to text
3. National Library for the Blind, Cromwell Road, Bredbury, Stockport, Cheshire SK6 2SG Back to text
4. Johnson, P. Ten Hours to Live. London: Mammoth, 1995 (print edition)
- Johnson, P. Ten Hours to Live. Nottingham: Bramcote Park School, The Park, Bramcote, Beeston, Nottingham NG9 3GD (Braille edition) Back to text
5. Living Painting Trust, Queen Isabelle House, Unit 8, Kingsclere Park, Kingsclere, Newbury, Berkshire RG20 4SW Back to text
6. Carle, E. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. London: Puffin, 1974 [thermoform pictures, Living Painting Trust] Back to text
7. Carle, E. The Very Busy Spider. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1985 Back to text
8. Fuller, C. Tactile Stories: A Do-it-Yourself Guide to Making 6 Tactile Books. London: Resources for Learning Difficulties, Professional Support Centre, Beaufort House School, Lillie Road, London SW6 1UF Back to text
9. Bartsch, E. Toy Workshop: Toys You Can Make Yourself for Handicapped and Non-handicapped Children. Berlin: FIPP-Verlag. (ISBN: 3 924830 30 4) Back to text
10. Morly Books. Smelly, Noisy and Feely Books. Elmfield Road, Morley, Leeds LS27 0NN Back to text
11. Chivers Press, Windsor Bridge Road, Bath BA2 3AX Back to text
12. Cover to Cover Cassettes, PO Box 112, Marlborough, Wiltshire SN8 3UG Back to text
13. National Listening Library, 12 Lant Street, London SE1 1QH Back to text
14. Calibre, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire HP22 5XQ Back to text
15. Talking Newspapers Association, 90 High Street, Heathfield, East Sussex TN21 8JD Back to text
16. Magna Large Print Books, Magna House, Long Preston, Skipton, North Yorkshire BD23 4ND Back to text
17. Ulverscroft Large Print Books, The Green, Bradgate Road, Anstey, Leicester LE7 7FU Back to text
18. American Printing House for the Blind, 1839 Frankfort Avenue, Box 6085, Louisville, Kentucky 40206, USA Back to text
19. Vertriebsstelle Des Landschafts Verbandes, Westfalen-Lippe, ABT 60/Ref 5d, Postfach 6125, Munster, Germany Back to text
20. Wiegand, P. Oxford Infant Atlas (large format). Oxford: OUP, 1992 Back to text
21. Atlas of the World. Hove: Wayland, 1994 Back to text
22. Smith, K. A Checkup with the Doctor. Oxford: Heinemann Educational, 1989 Back to text
23. Share the Vision, 36 Circular Road, Castlerock, Co. Londonderry BT51 4XA, N Ireland. Back to text

Please note the new address and telephone/fax numbers for REACH.
Desmond L. Spiers is Librarian and Information Officer, REACH: National Resource for Children with Reading Difficulties, Wellington House, Wellington Road, Wokingham, Berkshire RG40 2AG.
Tel: 0118 989 1101 (Voice and Minicom)
Fax: 0118 979 0989