May 14, 2019
It’s called Ranchhod Sees the World and it’s an illustration
picture book about Ranchhod Soni, a visually impaired
teacher in Gujarat, who has not disability come in the way of discovering new
things.
Bringing his story alive in a vivid and vibrant way for the first time is the
Beyond Braille series which claims to offer breakthrough
research to help visually impaired people visualise and imagine the world.
This is perhaps the first time, says Nupur Agarwal,
Founder, Beyond Braille that visually impaired readers would
get the opportunity to feel the shapes of objects/figures in the pictures.
The idea was triggered while Nupur was doing her Masters at CEPT
University in Ahmedabad.
Nupur also hopes that the series will also help raise awareness about the
community as an “equally abled” group rather than disabled or a distinct
group.
“The idea of making it a children’s book was so to instill the idea of
equality from the start and the need to build an inclusive world”, she
says. This, Nupur, felt was important as experience has shown that many
non-disabled people are unsure, even scared, of interacting with people with
disabilities.
Behind the final creation lay months of intense research by Nupur and her
team in finding the best materials, Braille text and other methods.
Initially, she created the book manually with the use of thread as the
primary material. “After the project, I took a year’s break when I worked
as a designer and thought of ways to mass produce this. I found a 3D designer
and printer who were willing to collaborate,” she adds.
She simultaneously worked on the storytelling, going through the process of
capturing the story, rhyming it, reading it, and imagining it from a
child’s perspective.
“The children were so fascinated when their fingertips touched and felt the
illustrations for the first time”, says Vidhi Tulsyan, a
project volunteer. “This was my first time working with visually impaired
kids and it was all very new and refreshing. We went to the blind school in
Surat, interacted with kids there and they were really into the project. It
feels great to be a part of this.”
If you want to know more about Beyond Braille, visit the website http://beyondbraille.com/. You can also order
the book here.
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Source: https://newzhook.com/story/22236
