Gun Olsson, Special Education Teacher, Swedish Agency for Accessible Media

The Braille bag

Inspiration and support to families

When a child is born with severe visual impairment the family is in need of support. It is, for most of them, a totally new situation and real challenge. And when it comes to future reading and writing the family must get to know Braille. As for sighted peers, it is important for blind children to get reading experiences early in life. It is important for the development of language and to achieve skills necessary for literacy. Sighted children meet letters, words and writing everywhere in their surroundings. The situation is not that beneficial for children that use Braille.

To give these children the opportunity to become acquainted with books and tactile pictures in early age The Swedish Agency for Accessible Media offer the mini Braille Bag and the Braille Bag. Our aim is to inspire parents and children to pre-Braille activities and make them aware of the different support services that we offer. The mini Braille Bag includes a tactile picture book with nonfigurative pictures. It is suitable for really young children. The Braille Bag includes a tactile picture book with simple pictures and an inspiration kit to the parents, which consist of practical examples of how to encourage children to develop tactile skills.  
In this presentation you will get an overview of the Braille bag and some thoughts about it. You will learn about the importance of early literacy and get ideas for pre-Braille-kits. The Swedish Tactile Picture books will be presented and hopefully you will get inspired and get ideas of how you can implement this type of Braille-kit service in your organisation.