Daria Korzhavina from Kyiv, 26, loves to read, but she can’t find enough books. With a diagnoses of retinoblastoma, a rare form of eye cancer, she is blind, so she can’t read the paper books, and books in Braille, the writing system for visually impaired people, are a rare find in Ukraine.
According to the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine only 1,258 books in Braille were printed in 2017 using budget money for the estimated 80,000 Ukrainians who are either blind, or have visual impairments. Some 500 more were produced by various non-governmental organizations using fundraised money, but most of these are of the poor quality, since Ukraine lacks modern equipment for printing Braille.
“People usually wonder, why do we still need Braille books, as there is a great number of new high-quality audiobooks, and I say that people start losing their sense of literacy, they forget how to write and how to read, they do not feel the rhythm of words,” says Korzhavina. “I wouldn’t stop reading Braille books, if only I had plenty of them.”
Nataliia Shcherboan, 43, the head of audiovisual and printing department of Ukrainian Association of the Blind, says that the situation with literature for people with visual impairments becomes more difficult each year, as the printing machines purchased in 2003 now frequently break down.
“Our department has two old printing machines, and it takes up to four days to produce one book. Moreover, it becomes more difficult to get state funding for the production of Braille books,” Shcherboan says.
While Ukraine’s government does not have any official data on the number of Ukrainians with visual impairments, there are 32,017 people registered with the Ukrainian Association of the Blind.
“However we estimate the real number to be about 80,000–100,000. The reason why most people do not register at Ukrainian Association of the Blind is either that they simply do not know about its existence, or they don’t what to accept the fact of their visual impairment, or don’t want to be called blind,” Shcherboan says.
Literature shortage
Korzhavina, who is an activist at the public organization Fight for Rights, believes that the government does not care about the needs of people with visual impairments.
“The state order does not cover all the needs of people with visual impairments, as there are almost no (new books, and textbooks, together with a complete absence of modern literature printed in Braille,” Korzhavina says.
According to Korzhavina, there is also a shortage of Braille maps.
“There are literally no maps for visually impaired people in Ukraine. I have one, but it was made in Poland many years ago. Although I hope the situation will soon change, at present Ukraine has no equipment for the production of such maps,” Korzhavina says.
In order to increase the number of Braille books in Ukraine, a volunteer project Braille Studio together with the First Ukrainian International Bank and fashion magazine L’Officiel launched a charity project in May 2017, raising 16,000 euros to purchase the newest BrailleBox V5 printer, which can produce almost 900 pages per hour.
The coordinator of Braille Studio and founder of the Fight for Rights public organization, Juliia Sachuk, 36, hopes to increase the number of books for people with visual impairments in Ukraine.
“This printer is the most powerful in Ukraine, it can print several books a day,” says Sachuk.
BrailleBox V5 was officially presented on July 17 in Kyiv, with the first printed edition of the book “My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla.” The organization plans to produce 50 copies of Nikola Tesla`s autobiography by the end of the year, together with such books as “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and in 2019 a series of books featuring Paddington Bear by Michael Bond.
The books will be distributed for free through social media to those who want to read them.
Huge gap
According to Korzhavina, the problem with the lack of literature for people with vision loss in Ukraine is more than just about reading itself.
She says that it has much more difficult consequences, because people with vision disabilities aren’t able to socialize properly.
“When I entered the Institute of Journalism at Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University I experienced a huge gap between me and my peers, because I simply did not read that books they were discussing. Now I realize that due to my visual loss, I simply did not have access to literature,” Korzhavina says.
“Braille books have always been a huge problem in Ukraine. Although libraries do have some of those, the majority of these books are not modern and have poor quality pages.”
Korzhavina also supports the idea of an inclusive education in Ukraine that allows people with disabilities to study together with their peers. But for now, Ukraine does not provide them with the resources to study literature in Braille.
“I personally know how difficult it is for a person with disability to communicate with others, especially their peers. Because of the lack of literature, there are many things we just do not understand and do not know about, and it is annoying. I believe that we should grow alongside with others, have the same experiences and the same books,” Korzhavina says.
