R emember the remember the pictures in those books and perhaps certain words that matched them. If you could not see or hear, would you have that memory? The problem is that mainstream children’s illustrated books are not fully accessible to over 5 million U.S. children with Special Needs. stories you read as a child? Regardless of your age, you still probably Imagination Storybooks creates accessible children’s books that enable all children to have a sensory experience, engaging all their senses, and increasing learning and development. Children ages 3-8 who are vision or hearing challenged or have a learning challenge such as autism or dyslexia are limited by books not made for them. Imagination Storybooks ensures their education
is limitless by giving them the gift of communication in accessible language. “The mission of Imagination Storybooks is to bring the magic, wonder and learning of children’s storybooks to every child.” Richard Rieman, Founder and CEO, Imagination Storybooks and Imagination Videobooks, Inc. Richard founded the nonprofit, Imagination Storybooks, to bridge these gaps and support blind and deaf children. His team of narrators and interpreters—over a dozen of whom are blind or low vision themselves—combine digital picture books with Audio Descriptions (AD) of the illustrations and a digital braille file, as well as captions and American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation. “Today, everything can be read in a robotic voice on a device, but we are trying to give children a
performance, and teach them to love books even at three, four, and five years old,” Richard explains. Imagination Storybooks partners with the nationally recognized Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP.org), funded by the U.S. Department of Education, so tens of thousands of blind children, their parents, and their teachers have free access. The Winnie-the-Pooh Project Now that the 1926 edition of Winnie-the-Pooh by AA Milne is in the public domain, Imagination Storybooks is producing accessible video and audiobook adaptations of the classic to everyone. The finished project will be over two hours in length. Richard says, “we want all children to fall in love with Winnie-the- Pooh and the beloved characters
Legacy Quarterly
31.
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