Dozens of works in bright covers lie on the table of one of the offices of the Student Library of Lviv Polytechnic National University. It is here that an educational environment for blind children from all over Ukraine is created every day.
Books are adapted, printed and voiced
Founded in 2011, the Resource Center for Educational Information Technology for Persons with Disabilities, Lviv Polytechnic, has today become one of the largest publishers of books for the blind. Despite the challenges of the war and difficulties with funding, in 2022 the Center’s team managed to print more than 5,000 copies of Braille books.
Oksana Potymko, head of the Resource Center and coordinator of projects for the blind, notes that their Center prints 30–60 copies of each book and provides them to institutions and organizations that work with blind or partially sighted children throughout Ukraine.
Children can also order free Braille books from the Resource Center’s library. It has copies of all the books that the Center has published during its existence.
Oksana Potymko also notes that more than 90% of their books are for children, although the attempts to create non-fiction for adults have also been successful. For example, in 2023 within the framework of the project «Overcoming the past. Ukraine in events and personalities» the team of the Center published 3 editions in Braille with a total circulation of 640 books, in particular: «Liubomyr Huzar. Outstanding Ukrainians. People who created history» by Olha Opanasenko, «Encyclopedia for the curious. Growing up as Ukrainians» by Hanna Tetelman and Kateryna Shapovalova’s books.
However, literature can not only be read with the fingertips, but also heard. In order to create more accessible educational and inclusive opportunities for the blind, the Resource Center started to record audio books in roles with the participation of blind children and famous Ukrainian artists. The process from recording to publication is managed by Slavko Nudyk, the soloist of Pikkardiyska Tertsiya.
Education and social integration of blind children
Currently, the team of the Resource Center takes care of more than 40 schoolchildren from different regions of Ukraine who study in ordinary schools. In particular, one of the schoolchildren in Vinnytsia is finishing the 4th grade. However, in the 5th grade, the number of teachers will increase to 12–15, and therefore the Center’s team plans to train its teachers on inclusive education in the near future.
In addition, the Resource Center of Lviv Polytechnic produces textbooks for blind children in DAISY format. The peculiarity of these audio books is the possibility not only to listen to them, but also to find the necessary paragraph, section, page immediately during the lesson in a matter of seconds.
The full text of the article is available on the Galinfo website.
