Programs Promoting Braille Literacy

Hands On! Books for Blind Children is a series of programs for blind children that seek to provide braille books to thousands of blind children and their families throughout every stage of their learning and to provide advocacy and education promoting the benefits of braille. These programs include: Readbooks! Because Braille Matters Family Outreach Program, Bumpy Basics, Children's Braille Book Club, and Lifelong Literacy. Detailed descriptions of each program are below.

• ReadBooks! Because Braille Matters Family Outreach Program

  Reading is the first step toward literacy. ReadBooks! Because Braille Matters encourages families to consider braille at the earliest possible age and to read print/braille books together at home. Families with young blind children, birth through seven, receive a free ReadBooks! book bag containing print/braille books, a braille primer for parents, braille alphabet cards, bookmarks, and other braille literacy tactiles.

• Bumpy Basics: Board Books to Introduce Toddlers to Literacy

  Babies are first introduced to words on board books--sturdy picture books with simple text. National Braille Press makes popular board books accessible by adding braille overlays directly onto the book, and making them available to families for the same price as the print book.

• Children's Braille Book Club

  Our Children's Braille Book Club is the only monthly book club in the country that offers popular children's books in a print/braille format for the same price as the print edition. With both print and braille on every page, families can share a storybook at home or blind youngsters can bring books to school to share with sighted classmates. Everyone is on the same page!

• Lifelong Literacy

  National Braille Press offers a wide range of braille books, magazines, and other resources that give blind people important tools for communicating, working, managing their healthcare, and staying current with the world.

Center for Braille Innovation

A hub for imaginative new ideas, inventive tools, and professional expertise National Braille Press developed the Center for Braille Innovation to open up a whole new world of communication for blind people using braille and tactile-based technology. With technology changing daily, blind people need a variety of accessible and affordable tools that interact and complement braille.