Visually impaired student reads in public
The e-Ananse Library came alive last Saturday when a visually impaired student, Edwin Ofosu, did a public reading of the braille extract of ‘The Magic World of Big Adam’, a newly launched novel for schoolchildren.
The book was authored by Mr Farouk Abdul-Rahman.
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Edwin, who is a student of the Akuapeman Senior High School, participated in the launch as part of steps the author of the book, Mr Abdul-Rahman, is taking to engage more visually-impaired people in the culture of reading.
The book is a fictional story that recounts events and imaginations of the author’s time at St. Augustine’s College, and he hopes it becomes a great stay-at-home companion too.
Mr Rahman is also the author of ‘Passing the BECE – A Step-by-Step Approach.’
He emphasised his resolve to help in the literary development of school-goers in the country through his Read to Grow project.
He said reading continuously was the best way for the youth to develop their minds and contribute meaningfully to society.
The Executive Director of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations, Ms Rita Kusi Kyeremaa, who was the Chairperson at the event, said the initiative to make the novel accessible in braille and audio forms would help the visually impaired to read it too.
The Deputy General Secretary of the Ghana Association of Writers (GAW), Mr Kofi Marrah, encouraged more Ghanaian writers to write books for the development of the society.
He mentioned the challenges the association was facing to include the fact that literature books authored by Ghanaian writers were rarely bought and supplied to schools and community libraries.
He mentioned the steps which were being taken to address them to include the formation of a Coalition of Book Industry Stakeholders, establishment of Writers Enterprise Fund and a GAW e-book Platform to publish e-books along the lines of Amazon.
Writing on World Braille Day, Peter Obeng-Asamoa said, across the world, the Braille is accepted as the medium of reading and writing for blind people.
Braille is a system of six dots arranged in various patterns to allow for interpretation as letters of the alphabet and numerical figures.
It is read with the pad of the fingers.
Through this medium, blind people in schools, homes and work places are able to read and write.
It is equal in value to handwriting or print for sighted people.
Thus, braille is to blind people as print is to sighted people.
It is not a code to be deciphered but a simple method of reading that was invented as a result of the innovation of a visually impaired man, called Louis Braille, who wanted to read as much as anybody else.
Although the way in which blind and partially sighted people develop literacy skills may differ, the goal is the same: to use reading, writing, and other literacy tools to gather and understand important information and to convey important information to themselves and to others.
Since the braille was invented almost 200 years ago, the world has seen a lot of changes.
However, the need to access information for education, leisure and various purposes has even increased.