Oklahoma Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped partners with Bethany Library to provide Braille

Oklahoma City – Oklahoma’s Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped has partnered with Bethany Library to make sure children who are blind and visually impaired can read using braille during StoryWalks.

The Oklahoma Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped provides braille transcription services to Oklahoma state agencies, and to various social service entities, nonprofits and others interested in making print materials more accessible for those who are blind or visually impaired.

OLBPH has partnered with the Bethany Library to transcribe StoryWalks into braille since 2022. StoryWalks is a way for people of all ages to enjoy reading and the outdoors at the same time. It involves attaching laminated pages from a children’s picture book to signs or stakes along an outdoor path, such as in a park. As people walk along the path, they find the next page. 

StoryWalks are held monthly, and Lacey Downs transcribes each one. Downs is the certified braille transcriptionist for the library and has transcribed nine books for StoryWalks.

“In the last year, OLBPH has transcribed a script for the Metropolitan Library System’s public service video, programs for People with Disabilities Awareness Day, agendas for four meetings of the Oklahoma Commission for Rehabilitation Services, citations for constituents of a state senator’s district and various materials for the OLBPH’s Summer Reading Program,” Downs said.

OLBPH provides talking books, magazines, newspapers and accessible textbooks for Oklahomans who are blind or visually impaired. Services are free to patrons. The library is a program of the Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, a division of the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services.

“We are proud to partner with Bethany Metropolitan Library,” SBVI Division Administrator Tracy Brigham said. “It is important for people who are blind or visually impaired to have the same reading opportunities as everyone else.”

The Bethany Library is now expanding its braille offerings by binding existing and future braille from StoryWalks into books and adding them to its circulation.

Anna Todd, a librarian at the Bethany Library and organizer of StoryWalks, said several local teachers requested braille signage to share in their classrooms.

“I brought up the idea of circulating the pages to our collection development department so that teachers beyond the Bethany community could access the pages,” Todd said. “It turns out that all our (the Metropolitan Library System’s) libraries have seen requests for more braille materials.”

Todd recommends that other public libraries consider including braille signage in StoryWalks and other activities.

“Access is such an important factor when it comes to library usage,” Todd said. “Our mission statement at Metro is ‘Connecting our diverse communities with resources and experiences to educate and enrich lives. By providing as many formats as we can, whether braille, audio or various languages, we are helping to reach the diverse community we serve in Oklahoma County.”

In 2023, OLBPH circulated 1,412 books daily free of charge in audio recorded and Braille formats to 4,962 eligible patrons with visual, physical or reading disabilities. Library staff mail specially formatted audio cartridges and players to patrons who return them by mail without postage charges. Those with internet access can download books and magazines through the library’s Braille and Audio Reading Download service known as BARD.

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