An inclusive library at Capital – Web de Noticias

• The Visually Impaired Provincial Library offers many services for visually impaired and low vision people.
• It works in the historic building in the city of Córdoba that houses the Legislative Assembly and has between 500 and 600 members.
• Among other things, it provides Braille and digital literacy classes, offers adapted bibliographic material, and performs audio description.

Inside Visually Impaired Provincial Library sincerity and good feelings are exhaled. The employees and partners of this institution, which is affiliated with the Córdoba Cultural Agency, headquartered in the city of Córdoba, show their enthusiasm in every activity they carry out. Provide free services to outreach activities to blind and visually impaired people across the province and to the community that promotes social inclusion.

The library operates in the historic downtown building that serves as the site for the provincial Legislature (64 Deán Funes street). Eight people work. Have More than 100 titles in braille system, 500 books with magnetic backing (cassette) and 650 titles in digital format (CD) produced in-house. In addition, there is an adapted computer lab with internet access, a Braille printing department, an audiobook recording studio and a binding workshop.

500 to 600 members They regularly visit the library. Year, Fifty students study digital literacy, Braille and Word. Participation had fallen during the pandemic, but recovered in 2022.

It is a place to access information, even in alternative supports. Present bibliographic material in Braille, adapted at the request of the visually impaired; teaches technology literacy to the blind and those who have lost their sight as adults; provide cultural accessibility for museums, theaters and other institutions with signage for public spaces in Braille; and makes it easier to read in the room.

Likewise, it lends works in different formats; records study notes and texts; teaches computer science; routing and moving trains; It offers audio descriptions to 200 visually impaired users who are interested in cultural studies.

Offers braille courses (Tactile reading and writing system for the blind) open to people with normal vision: teachers, professionals, relatives of the visually impaired and museum staff.

Printouts of educational materials and literary texts in Braille are free. Brochures for the games are also printed.

digital accessibility

nuria gracothe head of the library stressed the importance of cultural accessibility: “It allows people who lost their sight in adulthood to adapt to a new life through technology and re-engage in cultural activities, such as reading a book with a voice assistant system.”

Aldo CeballosFounder of the library and professor of rehabilitation for the visually impaired, he has been teaching student groups in Braille for 22 years. “We provide courses for blind and normal people because they have relatives with visual impairment or just to add information; The idea is to spread the Braille alphabet to the social community.”expressed.

Graco has stated that now library books finish digitizing For WhatsApp and email to users.

“So far, it has been possible to digitize 70 percent of the library’s material; There are 650 digitized books”pointed to the head of the institution.

He also predicted that in the digitized books with the greatest cultural content, they would begin to develop the artistic, place separators, and add music to give them more dynamics.

“You have to make them more beautiful and improve the sound quality of the voice”Gracco pointed. “At the end of the year we will finish digitizing everything and in March or April 2023 we can start the digital library with the digitization of all texts”progress.

action workers

Jesus Cardozo and Carlos Bulacio Adapt books and study materials to Braille and print them for visually impaired high school and college students. “We make over 10 thousand impressions per year”they said.

They train blind people in computer, mobile phone use, orientation and mobility. “We teach them how to use computers, even with voice, to navigate open spaces, to bus stops and other places; We teach them to download theater scripts and adapt programs for them to listen to by cell phone.”they added.

Jose Luis Oliva He has been a bookbinder and restorer for twenty years. Restores books and binds text in Braille code for people with normal vision. It also teaches interested parties how to bind texts.

“My job is to bind and deliver books written in Braille or ink; I am the only blind person in Córdoba who has done this”provided.

maxi noble he is a lawyer and user of the library where he learned Braille. It promoted digitalization in public spaces. “I want technology to be learned because technology today is faster than Braille”He got it.

puppets and chess

Another library activity mixed puppet workshopattended by blind actors and others who see. “We must expose the prejudice that the blind can do nothing but ask in the street; The idea is that the audience doesn’t realize that a blind man is manipulating the puppets until the job is done, to eventually make an impact and show that he is on an equal footing with the others.Graco stated.

there is also one chess workshop, with conventional boards adapted as reliefs. Intent start a chess club In library. In this context, Noble wants to exhibit this science-sport on the street and let the society know that a blind person can play this sport just like everyone else.

The Visually Impaired Provincial Library was put into service on September 24, 1993, after the approval of the Provincial Law No. 8201.

Phone inquiries: (0351) 420-5400 ext 5455.