While the catalog of the Braille Transcription and Edition Center has so far offered its books for sale between 60 and 122 euros, they will now be sold at prices between 11 and 30 euros.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
It took more than forty years since the institution of the unique price of the book. More than 2,000 pounds in Braille have been, since Wednesday, January 4, accessible at the price of a classic book, announced the Braille transcription and editing center (CTEB) in a Commission . While the CTEB catalog, the main printing in Braille de France, bookstore and publishing house, based in Toulouse, has so far offered its books for sale between 60 and 122 euros, they will now be sold at prices between 11 and 30 euros.
“It is a daring bet,” explains the director of the center, Adeline Roucant, because her institution has the capacity to finance this price change only for one, even two years. “It will be necessary to quickly find aid to be able to continue,” she said, considering however that the risk is worth it, “because it is finally doing justice to the blind”.
cost of manufacturing higher 2>
The cost of making a Braille book – around 700 euros, according to the CTEB – is much higher than that of classic books, because it requires transcription work done by specialists, special machines and paper Specific, thicker.
“This is an excellent initiative, since access to reading in Braille allows the blind and visually impaired who practice it to have direct access [to the book] Unlike audio reading, where we have the prism From someone who reads a work, “says Bruno Gendron, president of the Federation of the Blind of France.
On the other hand, selling books at the market price, “this removes the discriminatory phenomenon with regard to blind and visually impaired people who had to pay more” for the same work, he added.
To launch its initiative, the CTEB chose the symbolic date of January 4, which is World Braille Day. It was established in 2001 by the World Union of the Blind to celebrate the birth of the inventor of this tactile alphabet, French Louis Braille, January 4, 1809.
According to figures provided by Mr. Gendron, between 1.7 and 2 million people are visual deficient in mainland France. Among them, around 15 %, between 255,000 and 300,000 people, read Braille.