The act of experiencing a picture book is a thinly veiled, but nonetheless awesome, incredibly exciting and rewarding way to encourage early literacy in young children...for a child who can see, that is. To a Blind or Vision Impaired child, a mainstream printed, bound picture book is pretty useless. It's a rectangle with flappy bits inside. A Librarian in Western Australia came up with an idea to make picture books multi-sensory, interactive and still fully share-able by 3D printing tactile illustrations, which has been adopted as a project at her Library. This is the journey.

2. TOUCHY
FEELY
AUDI
READING
3D printing illustrations for blind/VI children -
Frances Flintoff

3. ABOUT ME
Frank Flintoff
Cataloguer and Alternative
Media Producer - Association
for the Blind of Western
Australia
Student - Masters of
Information Management
(Library and Information
Students + Records and
Archives)
Grad DipLibInfoStud, B Comms.
Mum and all-round nerd.

4. PICTURE BOOKS
A thinly veiled but awesome, incredibly exciting
and rewarding way to encourage early literacy in
young children
BUT
What about Blind/VI children? To them, a picture
book is a rectangle with flappy bits inside.
???

5. THE HEAD SCRATCHER
How can I make picture books an
effective - but still fun, interactive and
multi-sensory - early literacy tool for
Blind/VI children?
“...and then he had to stop and think.” - Winnie the Pooh.

6. BACKGROUND
Think back to when you were a kid...
What do you remember first about your
favourite picture book? The words or the
rich, lustrous, emotive illustrations?
If, as a child, you could only have the story
OR the pictures, would the experience be as
enjoyable?

7. LIGHTBULB MOMENTS
“But my Mum used to tell me stories without a
book when I was a kid and I could still
comprehend them!
She told me stories to help me sleep, about a field
of Poppies swaying in the breeze...”
BUT did you see those Poppies in your head?
Were they red with a black middle?

8. LIGHTBULB MOMENTS
Early literacy is not just about learning to
read and write, and to look a pretty pictures;
it is about linking concept with real, physical
things, about making meaning and to extend
and refine our knowledge of the world.

9. MARINATING SOME IDEAS
I don’t see any reason why blind/VI kids can’t
have the same ecstatic experience reading
picture books as my own sighted children do
There is no reason why blind/VI children
cannot be part of an inclusive classroom at
any level

10. LOOKING BACK TO MOVE
FORWARD
Every person with a disability is entitled to
“the full and equal enjoyment of all human
rights and fundamental freedoms”...
Brownell, Mary T.; Smith, Sean J.. Inclusive Instruction : Evidence-
Based Practices for Teaching Students with Disabilities. New York:
Guilford Publications, 2012.
...One of those rights is Education
Article 26, UN Declaration of Human Rights

11. LOOKING BACK TO MOVE
FORWARD
How can we say we are partaking in
student-centred learning if we do not
provide students with useful resources?
How can we expect children to be
excited about learning if they do not
have exciting tools?

12. EARLY EXAMPLES
1 x Large format monograph
[“The Happy Hedgehog Band”]
1 x Soft plastic toy, related to book
theme/characters
[An Echidna]
Hedgehog Echidna
≠

13. MINOR HURDLES
Design of 3D printed objects
Copyright issues
Funding opportunities
Logistics

14. DESIGN
Many 3D printed objects:
Highly stylised art, sculpture, jewellery, toys
etc.
What we need:
Items which genuinely represent the RL
counterpart, as closely as possible - but are
still exciting to touch.

15. COPYRIGHT
The Dr. Geoff Gallop Braille and Talking Book
Library works with the Australian 1986 Copyright
Act
Funnily enough, this doesn’t mention much
about the copyright of reproducing illustrations
in a tactile, 3D form.
But it does let us reproduce works in an
accessible format for use by the print disabled.

16. FUNDING
The Association for the Blind is a NFP charity
organisation and receives no Government
funding.
Everything else is easy compared to obtaining
hardware and supplies - we can’t build a house
without first laying down foundations!

17. LOGISTICS
Gamified Learning...for kids who cannot see!?
This project could still be really boring if we
don’t do it right!
You cannot sit a child down and force them to
become literate - learning should be fun and
exciting.

18. CHALLENGE
This will be a great challenge and I look
forward to sharing the results with you!

19. CONTACT ME
@frankflintoff
Frank Flintoff
+61 (0) 417 946 6679
frankellenflintoff@gmail.com
Desk army of 3D printed cats

20. THANK YOU