A new chapter for RSBC’s Bedtime Donations app

Children’s books can be picked up online or in a charity shop for less than a pound. But audiobooks are different – a best-selling children’s print book, like Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, can cost less than £5, whereas an audiobook version often retails at around £18. 

The facts are that audiobooks are expensive to produce and expensive to buy, and there’s a limited range of stories for under-18s. And yet they’re a vital alternative to print books for children and young people with vision impairments (VI).

Add in that many families with a blind or partially sighted child are already struggling financially to the mix, and it’s obvious that there are barriers to something as basic as reading a book for young people with VI. And that can affect everything from how their language skills develop to the relationships they form.

 

The answer - a groundbreaking audiobook app

RSBC’s Bedtime Donations app makes stories more accessible for blind and partially sighted children and young people. And it’s free. When someone’s reading a book from the app to their child, they can also make their ‘Bedtime Donation’ by recording themselves at the same time. With the help of AI technology, the recordings are checked and then transformed into audiobooks, creating a free, and growing, digital library. 

 

RSBC and New College Worcester: a new approach to telling stories

As a national residential school and college for children and young people who are blind or vision impaired, New College Worcester (NCW) loved the Bedtime Donations initiative and wanted its students to be involved with the app.

That evolved into an exciting collaboration with RSBC that’s brought a whole new dimension to recording stories for the app, just in time for World Braille Day. Several students read their Bedtime Donations stories from braille so that other young people with vision impairments could enjoy them on the app.

 

New College Worcester makes its Bedtime Donations

Rachel Perks, Principal at NCW, shared: “As soon as we heard about the Royal Society for Blind Children’s Bedtime Story campaign on BBC News, we knew we just had to take part! We loved the idea of children from across the UK being able to listen to stories that people have ‘donated’ and read aloud. Reading is such a special part of childhood — that magical time of snuggling up at bedtime and letting your imagination soar through hearing a story.

“We’ve been absolutely delighted to be involved in this wonderful campaign and are incredibly proud of our students for embracing it with such enthusiasm. Many of the stories have been read by our students in braille and it’s especially meaningful that young VI children can hear stories read in a medium they may be learning themselves. We’re proud that our students have been able to promote both the joy of reading and the importance of braille through their participation.”

NCW student, Dan, commented, “As an avid reader and a fan of audiobooks, I was delighted to be part of the project. My mum used to read The Famous Five to me as a child, and that was where my love of reading started. Now I’m doing A Level English Literature. To be part of the project is a privilege. It’s easy to get caught up in your own life and concerns, so it’s vital to participate in something that you know directly impacts the lives of other people in a positive way.

“It’s been a privilege to read stories in braille. As someone with a vision impairment, I know how transformative braille can be. Language is the way one person communicates their thoughts and feelings to another; therefore, it is vital as visually impaired people that we have a mechanism to express ourselves which is tailored to our way of thinking rather than being an adaptation of a sighted code.”

RSBC Chief Executive, Julie Davis, added, “We were delighted when New College Worcester got in touch to ask if their students could be involved in recording stories for the Bedtime Donations app by reading them from braille. And they’ve all done such a fantastic job of recording their stories. 

“Access to literature is such an important part of a child’s development, and that’s especially true for blind and partially sighted young people. It’s wonderful that the students from New College Worcester have been so enthusiastic about donating their voices to our campaign! We know that their bedtime stories will be incredibly popular with listeners on the app.”

 

Get the Bedtime Donations app

You can download the Bedtime Donations app from The App Store for Apple users and Google Play for Android. Then you can make a donation by recording a story for children to listen to, or your family can simply listen to one that’s already available.