Due to the efforts of Lvivites, a book and a film about the Adventures of Paddington became available to blind children. The Lviv regional branch of the All-Ukrainian public organization «The Ukrainian Union of Disabled Persons – USI» implemented a socio-cultural project «Meet: Paddington!».
Due to the project, Michael Bond’s book «Paddington» was published in 25 copies in two parts each (in total 50 books). The book was printed in a universal design – that is, it has several degrees of adaptation: flat and embossed, dotted fonts, QR-code with audio version and four colour tactile pictures that can be «seen» by touch. A novelty is the QR code in each book with the film «The Adventures of Paddington» adapted for blind children. The film has audio description that helps a blind child to «see» everything that is happening on the screen.
According to Oksana Potymko, Head of the Resource Center for Educational Information Technology for Persons with Disabilities, author and coordinator of the Meet: Paddington! project, this is the first project in which the organizers have comprehensively solved the problem of simultaneous access to both the book and the film. The work continued on the basis of the Resource Center of Lviv Polytechnic, which is equipped with appropriate equipment, personnel and technical resources.
On November 4, 2020, the books will be handed over to all children’s libraries in Lviv, two regional libraries for children, Lviv Special School No. 100, and Ranok Publishing House, which provided the text for publication in Braille.
The organization plans to donate additional copies to Nechytailo Family Foundation and Lviv Polytechnic Resource Center, which has online libraries for blind readers. Thus, the book will be available not only to Lviv residents, but also to blind children from all over Ukraine.
