Large print editions for school
After a meeting with my eldest’s school this week, I learned that they were having trouble sourcing large print editions of the phonics reading scheme they are following in class. With me being me, I asked the SENCO for the details of the scheme and I said that I’d see if I could try and see if I could help. My ego is confident in my abilities to effect change, I guess, though this has been wavering frequently.
The phonics and reading scheme they are following at school is Little Wandle Letters and Sounds, which uses Big Cat Phonics Books from Collins. Over the last few days I have immersed myself in the Little Wandle website and ethos, and I have to say, it sounds wonderful; I am a fan. When I discussed this scheme with my eldest’s teachers, they told me about how part of the scheme is active engagement, which means they sit around in small groups and discuss the book they’ve read. The idea that they do this in the classroom makes me honestly want to squeal with delight; it is adorable and so cute. As a bookworm child, my favourite parts of English Literature lessons were always when you could talk and discuss books with others. I think this was the start and heart of why I studied English Literature for as long as I did.
My eldest’s teacher said how much they had benefitted from this part of the scheme and alluded to the idea that this was one of the things that was helping them to start to thrive at school, after a difficult first half term. Though my eldest can already read (sight-read at least, relying on their memory, I think), all the parts of comprehension they have struggled with because focusing, looking and seeing the details and parts of the images is challenging for them. Being able to talk, giggle and chat with other classmates has helped them all learn how decode the stories, pictures and words in their books, as well as becoming an important social dynamic of the class. Social skills has always been something my eldest has had a difficult time with, especially groups, and this seems to have been a way in for them to start to relate to others in class.
I mention this to demonstrate the many positive aspects that this scheme has already had on my eldest; I imagine they are far from the only child in the class or the scheme who has reacted so well so quickly from learning to read in this way. And thus why I am so keen, determined and desperate (maybe) to keep my eldest on this positive track, or as close as I am able to do given the circumstances.
The problem is that although the level the class is currently reading at is large and clear enough for my eldest to see easily and without too much eye-effort (it looks to be about 24 point), as they progress through each level, the text will get smaller and so they will really start to struggle to see the text easily, or at all.
And so, the school SENCO and English Lead had been in contact with Little Wandle about the need for large print editions, and were directed to RNIB Bookshare, where all the files are available for free as a PDF download.
RNIB Bookshare is an amazing educational resource for learners with a print-disability, including those with dyslexia or who are blind or partially sighted. And from my research into book resources of this nature, it isn’t a given or as common as it should be that publishers send their books to schemes like this, so it is brilliant that my eldest will be able to have access to the books in this way; it does not escape me who lucky we are to have RNIB Bookshare.
I believe strongly though that there is room for improvement in all things, and the area of accessible books for children of all SEN is an area I am very passionate about improving. Though I will enthusiastically wax lyrical about the necessity of libraries such as RNIB Bookshare and similar, I ask myself and you: is this the best we can do for children and people who need such resources?
For the specific problem my eldest is facing in school, having the access to the PDFs of the Little Wandle scheme feels like an interim solution. Here’s why:
Reading on a PDF document
The benefit of this being that you can zoom in as needed so the text size is at a level where you’re comfortable.
There are many issues with reading a book like this, and it’s that the PDF is just an image of the book, and without the engine part for an ebook or similar, to recreate the experience of reading a book digitally, like turning the page. Also, when zoomed in on a PDF, it’s very fiddly to navigate around the page at the level of magnification on by keeping your finger on the page to move it around; it doesn’t give the best reading experience. Especially for those with eye conditions where eye movement and focus are a problem, the movement of the image and the scale at which you would need to view to take in the whole image would be difficult if not impossible.
The PDF of the book ‘Nip It! Dig It!’ by Natasha Paul, Big Cat Phonics, Collins.
Part of the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds reading scheme. Shown on an iPad Files PDF reader.
PDF on a Reading App
This is where reading apps, such as Dolphin Easy Reader can come in. You can access your account from RNIB Bookshare library directly from the app, and then can open the book PDFs in there and it adds the missing ‘book’ experience of the page turn, for instance.
There are so many helpful features which make this app accessible for a number of print disabilities: you can change the text size, it reads the text out to you, you can isolate text in text view and even change the font. All very marvellous.
The limitations of this app though, and as I have found repeatedly when it comes to picture books and how they as a book medium intersect with accessibility, is that it they are centred around text first, which I imagine is the bulk of Dolphin Easy Reader’s practical use. Books, apps and other accessibility tools to help with low vision and sight loss are geared to the adult experience because statistically this group are more likely to suffer from sight loss.
The PDF I downloaded as a sample to test was part of the Little Wandle scheme ‘Big Cat Phonics, Nip It! Dig It! by Natasha Paul’ which has been supplied to RNIB Bookshare as a single page PDF. Supplying them this way would be no problem for novels, chapter books etc. and I am not versed in the file and format requirements for RNIB Bookshare, but for a book which is seven full bleed spreads, the result is that when viewing the single pages in a PDF reader or Dolphin Easy Reader, you only see half an image at a time, which is frustrating for anyone, but when low vision and issues focusing are the reasons behind you having to consume the books in this way, it doesn’t solve problems, it causes more. Yes, you can make the text larger, but the experience of the book and learning to decode and understand the story via the combination of images and text is entirely lost.
Luckily the solution to this is easy and not expensive: sending double page spread in the PDF where applicable. This simple change would vastly improve the reading experience for those needing to use these PDFs.
There also may be other Reader Apps which allow two pages to be viewed side-by-side, and if you know of these, please let me know!
A full bleed spread from the book ‘Nip It! Dig It!’ by Natasha Paul, Big Cat Phonics, Collins.
Part of the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds reading scheme. The PDF supplied to RNIB Bookshare only allows one page to be seen at a time.
Social implications of a Book
Of course, you can print the PDF off in scale to the font size required. But if a beautiful part of this reading scheme is the social interaction and discussion of the books being read in a group, imagine being a child at school, with difficulties reading or learning. Perhaps this is something you are starting to become to be aware of, as your sense of self starts to form, perhaps even the beginning of your self-consciousness. Then you sit in a group reading setting where everyone has the same book but you have a collection of printed pieces of A4. Your difference to everyone marked out in the classroom, again. Not accommodated and included in the book scheme in your classroom.
Or, as a parent, imagine if your school didn’t have physical books for your child, but a printed version on printing paper. The physical book is a powerful symbol of many things, especially in education. In this case, the physical book, or lack there off, becomes a symbol of the difference in accommodation to needs; showing where needs fit in with the norm and where needs don’t. My child isn’t the only visually impaired child out there who would benefit from a large print edition, and I am starting to realise that there are other SEN and print disabilities that would benefit from access to large print editions, or at the least visually accessible editions. With our understanding of how children learn and the different needs they all have, we all have, ever expanding, I can foresee a time when the need for books like this will increase.
In primary schools in England, for example, the NHS does Vision Screening in some counties to have a point of early screening for any eye and vision problems.
The social and sharing aspect of reading together in the classroom and discussing comprehension, the idea that stories bring them all together on the same level and in the same space, something that joins them together a young, learning humans seems slightly negated by the idea that one of them round the table having not a book but the printed version or reading on a PDF on a tablet. Obviously a large print book is already different from the regular editions, but it’s as close as it can be to emulate the experience and feel inclusive to different levels of need.
Problems with Large Print Books
There is not one person I have ever met or worked with in Children’s Publishing who isn’t extremely passionate about children learning to read and becoming lifelong readers. And in this way, the huge gap there is the publishing industry in accessible books strikes me as one that is incongruous with this ethos.
During my journey of exploration into the area of SEN and accessible books when I am feeling at my most optimistic and generous regarding motives for this gap, it’s that people working on books simply don’t know about the SEN world. That was me not too long ago afterall. I had no idea about these things because how can you until you learn or hear about it. You can’t make considerate and thoughtful publication plans and books about something you have no experience or reason to consider. And it is with this optimism that I press forward trying to raise the awareness within my industry; even if just one person reads this and takes it forward, I’d consider that a huge win.
The other area is profit and consumer demand. I am unsure how many visually-impaired children or adults there are, and how that number reflects on requests for large print editions, particularly in children. I am more aware of these issues than most because it’s a world I exist within, or rather alongside my eldest, but I do know that as we as a society become more aware of people’s different needs and ways of reading, this market will only get larger - which is such a positive for society.
I know small print runs, especially for larger TPS and longer paginated full colour picture books will be an expense, and I had this in mind when I wrote a post last week about how we might make picture books more accessible with only a few considerations and small, inexpensive changes. I strongly believe that digital solutions is the answer here, but that’s a post for another day. But this is not a commercial range, this range is an educational range used in schools to teach children how to read and engage with ideas and thoughts as they grow into the awesome person they’ll become. That provisions to make large print books available for those children that need them can not even be found even in an educational setting should upset everyone deeply. In all honesty, it’s horrifying and is not a positive reflection on how low vision and visually impaired people are treated in education or by the commercial market. They deserve better and it needs to be addressed yesterday.
I had some great, and I hope, productive conversations with Little Wandle about next steps and I got a response from Collins Education that they would pass my concerns onto their editorial team. I really hope they do, and I will happily talk to them about accessible books if they’d like to.
In the immediate term though, my eldest has some access to the books in the scheme via RNIB Bookshare … small steps.
I am off to start reading ‘Reading in the Brain’ by Dr Stanislas Dehaene.
