The Resource Center for Educational Information Technology for Persons with Disabilities, Lviv Polytechnic National University, which has remained the only center for publishing books for blind children in Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale war, received a new powerful Braille printer worth UAH 570,000.
According to Oksana Potymko, the initiator and coordinator of projects for the blind, head of the Lviv Polytechnic Resource Center, the printer was donated by the religious organization Religious Administration of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ukraine, which four years ago had already donated an office Braille printer worth 180 thousand hryvnias to the University.
«Lviv Center for Braille Printing received the long-awaited equipment from a manufacturer from Sweden. This equipment will not only significantly increase the circulation of books for blind children, but also increase the number of diverse books. Thus, if before receiving this printer the Center could print 15–20 new literary works for blind children in Braille during the year (circulation from 30 to 80 copies), then with the advent of a new semi-industrial Braille printer this number will increase to 25–30 (and more) during the year. The circulation of each edition will also increase», said Oksana Potymko.
It should be noted that after February 24, the load on the Lviv Center for Braille has increased significantly. After all, three other similar centers in Kharkiv and Kyiv have suspended their activities due to hostilities. Therefore, the Lviv Center, which previously served all regions of Ukraine, for the past three months also serves the needs of blind children in other European countries – those who evacuated from regions of active hostilities.
In particular, in March 2022, the Resource Center for Educational Information Technology for Persons with Disabilities, Lviv Polytechnic, sent several hundred books in Braille to Poland, in April – to Lithuania, in May – to Italy, Germany and Austria.
Given the arrival of the new printer, the Resource Center team immediately formed a list of literary works by Ukrainian and foreign authors who they plan to publish in Braille. These are, in particular, a series of five books by Maryna Pavlenko The Little Mermaid from 7-B, The Mistelves by Halyna Vdovychenko, Society of Cowards and Liars by Lesia Voronina, The Hobbit by John Tolkien and others. These are multi-volume editions, each of which will reach from 3 to 7 volumes in Braille.
