ClearVision

If you’re an adult who reads braille and would like books to read with sighted children, you’re welcome to join ClearVision. We lend books so people can read with their children, grandchildren, siblings, nephews, nieces, cousins and children of friends, or with children at their local school or library. Membership is free. Once you have joined, we will send you six books and we ask you to change three at a time, as often as you like. You can keep books for up to six months. You are welcome to contact us at any time to comment on our books and update us on what sort of books you’d like.

Some ClearVision books have been especially adapted for braille-reading adults to share with sighted children. As well as the text of the story in braille, these have added picture descriptions in braille and braille labels so you can point out items of interest in the picture to a sighted child. We also have very simple board books with braille labels so that adults can share them with sighted babies and toddlers, including ones to help young children learn concepts such as colour and shape. To join, complete the membership form below, or phone 020 8789 9575.

We lend books to nurseries, schools and Sensory Support/Visual Impairment services throughout the UK and Ireland. You can borrow books for children learning to read/explore by touch (braille or Moon, or using tactile books) but also for sighted children to take home and read with braille-reading parents. We have fiction and non-fiction books in contracted (grade 1) and contracted (grade 2) braille, catering for children who are working towards complete reading fluency, and a small collection of books in Moon. See the ‘Our Books’ page for more information about the books we have available.

The annual membership fee is £50.00. This represents a small fraction of the cost of providing the loan, and is heavily subsidised by our fundraising. This gives you 20 “units” of loan, which can be made up of different types of books. A picture book is 1 unit, a chapter book for newly-fluent readers is 2 units and a tactile book 4. You could borrow a single type of book e.g. 20 picture books or a mixture e.g.10 picture books and 5 short chapter books for newly fluent readers. Children reading at a similar level can share a loan, or you can take out a loan per child if they are quick readers/you have several children with differing reading needs.

You can change your books up to six times a year and you can keep them for up to six months, though we encourage changing them at least once a term. You can either exchange all the books at once, or half at a time. You return books to us using the postal box provided, by handing them in at any post office or organising a Royal Mail collection from your school/Service. Books are sent using the Articles for the Blind freepost service so you don’t pay postal costs.

To join, complete the membership form below or call us on 020 8789 9575. If you would like to borrow tactile books you’ll also need to complete a tactile book form. Payment can be made by cheque or BACS. Once we have received your completed application form (and tactile form if relevant) and payment, we will send your first loan. Please note that we don’t send books out during the school holidays, and that we operate a strict “first returned, first sent back out” policy for busy times such as the start/end of school terms.

You will be invoiced for any books which are lost or damaged beyond repair but this will not usually be more than £15.00 per book, with the exception of tactile books.

Public libraries in the UK can borrow collections of books from us to lend out on a local basis, meaning that braille-reading library users can walk in and choose books from the shelf, just as their sighted family and peers do. This is a great way to provide your borrowers with a large, frequently-changing collection of braille books without the expense of buying them.

The annual membership fee is £50.00. This gives you 20 “units” of loan, which can be divided between picture books (1unit) and short chapter books for newly-fluent readers (2 units). Our standard loan to libraries consists of 5 picture books in uncontracted (grade 1) braille, 5 picture books in contracted (grade 2) braille and 6 books for newly-fluent readers, but you can adapt this depending on your readers’ needs.

You can change your books up to 6 times a year and you can keep them for up to 12 months. You can either exchange all the books at once or half of them at a time. You return books to us using the postal box provided, by handing them in at any post office or organising a Royal Mail collection from your library. Books are sent using the Articles for the Blind freepost service so you don’t pay postal costs.

You will be invoiced for any books which are lost or damaged beyond repair but this will not usually be more than £15.00 per book.

Whilst you cannot stick your own barcodes onto ClearVision books, they can be incorporated into your library system by, for example, putting each book into a barcoded plastic wallet or entering each book's details onto a barcoded index card.
As well as being a useful resource for braille-readers in your area, ClearVision books are a popular way for local primary school teachers to introduce the topics of braille and visual impairment to sighted children.

Your collection of ClearVision books can be promoted through local associations for blind people, special and mainstream schools, social services, the local Talking Newspaper and the local press, as well as library websites. Some libraries hold special events to promote all their services borrowers who have a visual impairment, including audio and large print collections.