Helping blind children to read picture books earns company’s founder HK$800,000 grant from Chinese University programme sponsored by Operation Santa Claus
- Sound clips, Braille, and paper cut-outs all part of James Chong’s project that impressed at 2019 Pitching Day
James Chong Kwok-tung believes blind children can enjoy reading picture books like their able-bodied peers do – if the stories are relayed in the right format.
Using sound clips, Braille and tactile paper sculpture, the founder of Rolling Books is producing volumes for visually impaired young readers, who use their other senses to help cope with vision loss.
“Visually impaired children can touch the paper cut-outs, and hear the audio descriptions to follow the plot,” Chong said, adding the features could animate the characters and provide multiple layers of stimuli for disabled readers.
“The tactile diagrams and verbal narratives enable visually impaired children to better understand the movements of characters.”
Chong said he hoped to help children living with special education needs to discover the pleasure of reading picture books.