Lviv continues to create new inclusive cultural products. In a few days, more than 50 special institutions for blind children across Ukraine will receive new books with universal design, published in Lviv. Each book has an audio version, embossed colorful pictures that can be «seen» by touch, and is printed in Braille and the usual flat font, which allows both sighted and blind children to read it.
«The book that overcomes barriers» is a new project of the Lviv regional branch of the All-Ukrainian public organization «The Ukrainian Union of Disabled Persons – USI», implemented in 2020 with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. 10 publications in universal design have been published within the framework of this project (780 books in total).
– All books have embossed, dotted and flat fonts, embossed colorful pictures, hardcover in Braille and QR-code with the audio in each edition. These are books in a universal design that can be read by both relatively healthy children and the blind, visually and hearing impaired people, persons with Musculoskeletal disorders, dyslexia and others. The books have been selected in such a way as to satisfy the curiosity of children of different ages. All books educate children, especially the blind, literate speech, give them unforgettable emotions and impressions from reading, said Oksana Potymko, executive director of the Lviv branch of the Ukrainian Union of Disabled Persons – USI, adviser to the mayor of Lviv, head of the Resource Center for Educational Information Technology for Persons with Disabilities, Lviv Polytechnic National University.
All books were published by the staff of the Resource Center for Educational Information Technology for Persons with Disabilities, Lviv Polytechnic. The Center has also published embossed colorful pictures that can be «seen» by touch. Kateryna Ivashutina was responsible for publishing books and tactile pictures. Yaroslav Nudyk, a vocalist from Pikkardiyska Tertsiya, voiced the books. The project was coordinated by blind researcher and public activist Oksana Potymko.
All 780 books will go to all corners of Ukraine in a few days. Books will be given to 12 special boarding schools for blind children (Lviv, Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhiaia, Sloviansk in Donetsk region and Rubizhne in Luhansk region, Cherkasy and others), 13 regional libraries for children (Dnipro, Chernivtsi, Chernihiv, Kyiv and others), all 23 regional universal libraries of Ukraine, as well as the Central Specialized Library for the Blind in Kyiv, Book Chamber of Ukraine and some specialized institutions.
Let us remind that Oksana Potymko and three other representatives of Lviv Polytechnic have been recently awarded the State Prize of Ukraine in the field of education in 2019 in the category «Vocational Education» for the work «Integrated information and educational environment and rehabilitation measures to ensure equal access to quality education for people with special educational needs».