Personalised books for sight impaired pupils

The National Blind Children’s Society is 16 years old. It provides support to families and schools and can help to make books, computers and recreational activities more accessible to young people.At the Academies Show in Birminghamin November they were showing their CustomEyes Book Service.

Many publishers now offer large print books and that is great news for people who find small print a trial as they get older. But what about children with particular eye conditions who might need different colour combinations of text and paper or who respond so much better to one particular font?

Up till now they have had to rely on a TA and a photocopier to get resources which children can read. The CustomEyes Book Service is different. They offer tailor-made large-print and have more than 2,700 titles. Back in January they signed a deal with the OUP publishing house and can now offer over 400 Oxford Reading Tree reading resources. Now children with many different eye conditions can read the same books as the rest of the class.