Acess to children’s literature by visually impaired individuals

Abstract

Currently, we find a variety of children's and young people's books on the publishing market that provide their readers with access to literature. However, we find few books that fully address children and young people with visual impairments. Children with blindness and low vision, deprived of some symbolic representations of the written language, such as those contained in food packaging, billboards, websites and magazines, for example, need an even greater variety of books, in this case, tactile picture books that give them reading opportunities and, consequently, social insertion. Such fact triggers this study, which seeks to analyze whether the characteristics used in tactile illustrated books enable a fluid and pleasurable reading for children with visual impairment, with the easy location of tactile images, Braille writing and enlarged writing and other criteria pointed out by researchers in the area. The study had a qualitative approach, subsidized by an experimental research involving tactile picture books made for the research and two visually impaired subjects (8 and 11 years old). The results indicate that, if the standards brought in the study are respected, a tactile illustrated book is able to promote access to literature to visually impaired subjects, in addition to promoting accessibility to all children, thus bringing them closer to the universe of children's books, which promote bridges to assist in the process of learning.