Library for the blind

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Library for the Blind or Blind Library is a library , which for the blind holds appropriate and visually impaired media for loan, mainly books and magazines in Braille (Braille by Louis Braille ) or with large print and audio media (records, audio cassettes, audio CDs or as a DAISY audio book ).

Users can have the media sent to them free of charge by the libraries for the blind thanks to the worldwide postage exemption for mail for the blind. Blind and visually impaired people pay a one-time registration fee or an annual membership fee at some libraries for the blind. Other libraries for the blind are free.

history

The black and white photo from 1980 shows three teenagers and one adult woman sitting at a table. On this are books for the blind, on the dark pages of which animal representations (lion, giraffe) are embossed in relief, i.e. tactile. On the left, two girls have put their heads together and are whispering happily together. The right of the two feels with the fingertips of both hands over a page of a book with her eyes closed while she whispers in the ear of the person sitting next to her. The latter, wearing thick glasses, listens in amusement. The long-haired boy sitting next to it is apparently blind; he feels the book in front of him with concentration. The supervisor watches.
Young people at a school for the blind in 1980 in the Leipzig library for the blind

The first public library for the blind with a print shop, the German Central Library for the Blind in Leipzig (DZB) in Germany, was founded in Leipzig in 1894 . Audiobooks have also been produced here since 1956 .
The South German Hearing and Braille Library in Stuttgart , founded in 1957, had to be closed in 2004 for economic reasons.

There are other libraries for the blind in German-speaking countries in

In September 2004 the media community for blind and visually impaired people e. V. (MedBuS) , an association of libraries for the blind in German-speaking countries, was founded.

Media for the blind

The first audiobooks for the blind were produced in the 1950s. The invention of the vinyl record made the new medium possible. It was only with the introduction of compact cassettes and later audio CDs that audio books became so “handy” that they could be sent in large numbers by post without damage in transit.

Web links

Media community for blind and visually impaired people e. V. (MediBuS)

Audio libraries

Germany

Austria

Switzerland

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of the Association - Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired Württemberg eV Accessed on May 25, 2020 .