Written by Jennifer Mathews, Instructional Media Technology Specialist
The CSDB library has gone through some major changes this year as we have worked to move into and design a new space as well as to combine two libraries into one! The hard work has paid off and resulted in a wonderful new space where both our blind and deaf students can feel welcome, relax with a book, spend time studying, or even explore our new Makerspace area.
Now, our goal is to continue to improve and grow our library resources, so that ALL CSDB students can find a book to enjoy. As we worked to combine the resources from two libraries into one, it was discovered that our collection lacked some reading material for our elementary blind/visually impaired students. These students are still in the process of learning braille, so they are not able to enjoy reading a braille book; they also are still learning computer skills so they cannot easily access audio books using a computer. As a result of this realization, finding accessible materials that our younger blind/visually impaired students could enjoy became a must.
VOX books became our answer! VOX books are regular print books that also have read aloud capabilities. These books have pages with print and pictures as well as an attached audio player that our elementary students can easily use. The player allows our students to play, stop, pause, and control the volume of the story as the print pages are read aloud to them. Students can also choose to plug headphones into the player or play it out loud for their family and friends to enjoy; all the audio players are also rechargeable!
And as an added bonus, not only do our elementary blind/visually impaired students get the opportunity to enjoy a good book with VOX books, but so do our deaf/heading impaired students! The fact that the VOX books include pages with print and pictures on it as well as an audio player allows these books to be used and enjoyed by our deaf students as well! Our library has started adding VOX books to our collection and we currently have about 50 available, with plans to add many more!
