‘Share the Vision’ team spotlights resources at Orkney Library for sight-impaired readers

The amazing array of resources for folk with vision impairment will be the focus on 3 May at Orkney Library and Archive as the team is visited by the national, ‘Share the Vision’ campaign.

Simon Savidge, a self professed all round superfan of books and libraries and who posts as 'SavidgeReads' on YouTube, is visiting Orkney as part of a whirlwind national tour aimed at highlighting the options for vision impaired folk at their local libraries.

Orkney Library & Archive offers books in large print format, audio books in CD format or online and via Borrowbox, as well as e-magazines, large format games and jigsaws.

They also host the local Visually Impaired People's (VIP) group who meet monthly in the library, as well as the wonderful volunteers at the Orkney Talking Newspaper who record articles from The Orcadian newspaper.

The library also has magnifiers and other equipment to help people enjoy reading for as long as possible throughout their life.

Vikki Kerr is Team Manger at Orkney Library and Archive: “Most of us will experience sight changes throughout life which can really impact on our lives. The Orkney Library is here to help everyone enjoy stories and access the information they need, with a range of resources in place to help people continue their love of books and reading as their sight changes.”

Share the Vision is a coalition of UK organisations that work together to improve the quality, availability and accessibility of library services for visually impaired and print disabled people. Their partners include ASCEL, the British Library, Calibre Audio, ClearVision, Libraries Connected, and RNIB. Together, they produce the Reading Sight website which is a bank of resources to support anyone with an interest in helping people with sight loss to access reading and reading services.

Every hour, another person in the UK goes blind; and around 2 million people in the UK are living with sight loss, with estimates suggesting that this number could double by 2050.

Simon said: “It’s clearly important we highlight in communities across the UK the fabulous staff and resources at libraries that can help people keep up their reading and their use of libraries despite vision problems.”

Simon Savidge will be posting about his visits to libraries on his social media platforms, charting his journey, his experiences as he visits locations in each of the countries of the UK, and, most importantly, the lived experience of people with sight loss.