Regina Public Library offers dual-braille children’s books

Reading a book with your child is an activity most parents joy, but what happens if you or your child is visually impaired?

The Regina Public Library is trying to give those families the same experience with a small collection of new dual-braille children’s books.

“Regular text with the actual braille language on top of the text,” explained Andrea Newland, manager of collections for the library. “So someone who is sighted can read along with someone who is not sighted.”

There are larger books available, along with board books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

The books are part of the library’s push to be more inclusive. It has large-print children’s books, audiobooks and a set of books for the deaf and hard of hearing, which have American Sign Language signs on the pages.

“I thought that we should be developing our collections and breaking away from what we’ve been doing for a while and looking how to expand, and how to be more diverse, and how to be more inclusive,” Newland said.

The books are only available at the Central Children’s branch downtown.

“If there is a demand for them then we can definitely expand to all the children’s areas across the system,” she said.

The books have only been on the shelves for a couple of weeks, so Newland doesn’t know how popular they’ve been, but she said there are a few groups who’ve expressed an interest.