ClearVision's Story

We began back in the 1980’s, when a school librarian moved to work at Linden Lodge school for the Blind (where we are still based). As she made her initial tour of the library, she was shown the braille-only reading schemes and then the braille-only books that the children moved on to, once they were fluent readers. The books were adult titles: Charles Dickens, Agatha Christie, Jane Austen; all fantastic authors, but not geared to the tastes and understanding of 6 and 7 year olds. Furthermore, books had no illustrations (even though many children learning braille have enough sight to enjoy very clear, bold illustrations), and no print; they were page after page of brown or white paper, covered in braille dots and nothing else. This was how all braille books were produced then.

“Where are their books to take home and read with their families?” she asked, thinking of her own children, who brought home reading books from school to practise every night.
“There aren’t any,” came the explanation, “their parents can’t read braille.”

To her, the solution was obvious and simple: take ordinary children’s picture books and add the braille on clear plastic sheets, so that print, pictures and braille are all present on the page, allowing books to be shared between those who read print and those who read braille- and give blind children appropriate, engaging, inspiring books and a full share in children’s culture along the way. This is what she did, and word spread. Soon it wasn’t just Linden Lodge children taking books home to practise reading with their sighted parents, share with their sighted siblings and enjoy bedtime stories as a family. Other families wanted this facility, including blind parents and grandparents with sighted children. As more and more blind students became educated in mainstream school, with class teachers and peers who’d barely heard of braille, they needed books they could share in the classroom. Our postal lending library was born and we now cover the whole of the UK and Ireland.

In the late 1990’s, it became apparent that a lending library of books with tactile pictures was needed. We researched the best of what the world has to offer, particularly drawing on similar libraries in France, Italy, Finland and the Netherlands. We drew up design guidelines, recruited volunteers and hundreds of handmade books with realistically-textured illustrations were produced. We currently have a unique collection of around 800 handmade tactile picture books.

We believe that all children deserve the opportunity to expand their literacy skills, maximise their education and experience the joy and comfort that comes from sharing books with others.