Winnie-the-Pooh & Storybook Accessibility, too!
Children’s illustrated books like Winnie the Pooh have not been fully accessible to over 5 million children with special needs in the U.S., until now. Children ages 3-8 who are vision or hearing challenged or have a learning disability have been limited by books not made for them.
The new “Storybooks Club“ from Denver Nonprofit ImaginationStorybooks.org is bringing the magic of books to all children in three different ways:
- Professional narrators describe all the pictures so blind and low vision children can enjoy the whole story.
- Videos include sign language and captions that include picture descriptions for deaf children.
- Both video and audiobooks have pictures richly described, so children who are dyslexic, autistic, or have other learning challenges can understand the story.
Imagination Storybooks Club members receive access to a library of children’s illustrated books in all three formats as well as bonus content for parents and teachers.
“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,” Imagination Storybooks Founder and “Storybook Wizard” Richard Rieman explains.
“We have created a portal into the magical world of children’s books for children who are blind, deaf, or neurodiverse with learning challenges such as autism or dyslexia.”
“Our accessible audiobook version of Winnie-the-Pooh debuted at #1 in Children’s Anthology books on Audible,” says Richard. “We want all children to fall in love with Winnie-the-Pooh and the beloved characters of Hundred Acre Wood including children who are blind, deaf, and learning challenged.”
About Imagination Storybooks
Imagination Storybooks (ISB) creates children’s books that enable all children to have a book experience, engaging all their senses, and increasing learning and development.
The American Council of the Blind awarded ISB its Special Recognition Award in 2021 for dedicating its mission to fostering early literacy for children who are blind or have low vision.
The Imagination Storybooks team of narrators and interpreters – over a dozen of whom are blind or low vision – combine digital picture books with rich audio descriptions of the illustrations and a digital braille file, as well as captions and American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation.
Imagination Storybooks also 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
Imagination Storybooks produces the weekly Illustrated Audiobooks podcast, winner of the 2022 Communicator Award for Excellence as “Best Storytelling Podcast.”
About Richard Rieman, “The Storybook Wizard.”
Richard is the Founder and CEO of Imagination Storybooks at ImaginationStorybooks.org. He has narrated and produced hundreds of Indie-published audiobooks and is the author of the award-winning book, “The Author’s Guide to Audiobook Creation.” Richard Rieman is gradually losing his own eyesight due to glaucoma, but not his vision to make illustrated books accessible to ALL children.
Audio and video clips of Winnie-the-Pooh and other accessible books are available for all media.
Contact Richard Rieman at [email protected] or 720-507-5970.
Author: Mile High Mamas
