Newspapers, books, multimedia products, though they are getting more
and more sophisticated, are still too often inaccessible, making things
difficult for a considerable part of the users, and making them feel
disabled in all regards. The Reading Made Easy Project wants to provide tangible responses on these subjects. It will offer persons with low vision indications on useful devices to make good use of residual vision, and to persons who are blind, information on systems which can compensate in some way their disability. At the same time, the Reading Made Easy Project is committed to making the subject of visual impairment part of social life involving those who, through their work (publishers, local companies, teaching bodies, associations of voluntary help), contribute to the growth of culture and to the integration of persons with a visual disability. A journey of awareness is beginning, similar to what had been necessary to do in past years to make society understand the importance of pulling down architectural barriers.
Born in the Spring of 2000 and coordinated by the External Relations and Communications Directorate of the City of Venice, the Reading Made Easy Project presents various objectives:
Information: Through a walk-up window open to citizens, the web site and newsletters, information is provided on ressources and technologies which are useful for a visually impaired person to have access to the right of reading. In this regard, PressVision holds a fundamental role of information in keeping a revue of daily articles of importance, sent by emails, relating to visual disability and found in national and local newspapers.
ConText: This is the part in the project that is dedicated to the accessibility to written texts and which provides information on the various methods of reading for those who have a visual impairment. Closely related to this section is the Standardized Catalog of books in alternative format, which brings together for the first time in a single database, lists of texts available in Italy in alternative format with details on the specialized centre or publishing house which supplies them. This database is accessible on-line to everyone on the project's web site (http://www.letturagevolata.it) and it is obviously enjoyable by everyone as it was developed according to the criteria and guidelines on web accessibility by the W3C Consortium.
Books in large print: With the agreement of some publishing houses supporting the initiative, the Reading Made Easy Project has launched the reprinting, in a limited edition, of texts in large print (in font size 16 and 20). The objective is to give life to a real collection in large print available to users (seniors and visually impaired) who tend to lose pleasure in reading because of problems related to sight.
Special material on Venice: This is the creation of specific objects (enlarged, audio, tactile) for the visually impaired, in order to increase knowledge of the city and the area, its artistic patrimony and its services. Tactile maps were made representing various parts of the city such as the lagoon, the islands, and the districts. These maps can be downloaded from the web and, with the Minolta technology, they can be produced in raised lines in order to allow tactile exploration.
Legibility and accessibility: These are actions of awareness raising on the needs of blind and visually impaired persons directed to those who provide information, whether it is traditional (forms, printed material, posters), or in electronic format (multimedia products, web sites). The objective is to provide information about specific guidelines and have them adopted (character size, space between lines, format, style and colour of paper) for more legible texts. Research and experimentation: Certain research initiatives are taking place in the field of alternative reading technology. The Reading Made Easy Project, together with other European partners, has developed the 3t-book Project (talking, textual, tactile). It has allowed the development of John Ruskin's masterpiece, The Stones of Venice, in a multimedia and multisensorial version.