LookAtVietnam – Libraries around Viet Nam rarely have books or other reading materials for people with visual impairment because of the high costs involved, officials say.

Helping hand: Children with visual impairment from Nguyen Dinh Chieu School and Nhat Hong Centre are among the first to lay their hands on tactile books published recently by the HCM City General Science Library following a contest it organised.

There are around a million people in the country with full or partial sight impairment who need to study and acquire information just like people with sight, he said, pointing out they have the same demands like studying and entertainment.

One of the major reasons for this despite the advancement of science and technology is that the cost for converting the documents into the other formats is very high, he explained.

Following a 2007 project to set up a mobile library with materials and multimedia equipment for people without sight in HCM City and southern provinces, the library began a project three months ago to produce books for children with visual impairment with assistance form the Australian Chamber of Commerce (Auscham) and Sai Gon Children Charity.

It organised a contest called “Production of Tactile Books for Blind Children” and chose 40 out of 59 Braille books entered by contestants from Viet Nam and other countries for duplicating.

The books are on a wide range of subjects, including fairytales and the natural world.

The first prize went to Se Con (The Baby Sparrow) submitted by Nhat Hong Centre and Fashion Book by Nguyen Thi Hung from the Centre of Standards, Measurement and Quality No 3.

Out of the 59 books, 37 are fairytales and 22 are about animals and mundane objects encountered in daily life.

They will now be converted into tactile books for children with visual impairment and be available in the library and the mobile library.

“I love the books. They are very helpful for people like me who are unable to read. Before the project, I didn’t know how the sun looked,” Do Thi Bon, a ninth grader at Nhat Hong Centre, said after reading some of the works.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News