I'm Sarah Morley Wilkins and I'm the Principal Manager of RNIB's Centre of Accessible Information.
Accessible Images are images that have been designed specifically to suit people who are
touching them, perhaps, with their fingers if they're braille readers, or if they're
looking at them with partial sight. So they are clear, they're simplified, we usually
take the key information out of an image and just present that.
I'm Doctor Christopher Stonehouse and I'm Vice Principal at New College Worcester. In
many subjects, students need to have access to visual information to help them learn,
to explain maybe a process in science or to understand a geographical concept. It's key
those students have the same access to a range of materials that a fully sighted student
would have.
I am Richard, I am 18, I've got very low amounts of sight. I'm currently studying A2 Maths,
Further Maths and Physics. Accessible Images have a very large, very profound effect because
- although this sounds strange for a blind person - it is so important to be able to
visualise. In Physics, there's diagrams that show you exactly where things are going without
needing it to be described. It's the difference between imagining what's being described to
you and seeing something and understanding it.
RNIB invested to build a repository of resources and with a free membership, schools and resource
bases all over the country can have access to the images, textbooks, training guidance
resources and they can upload their own resources to share with other people. It's an amazing
contribution to education.
I'm Martin Bradbury and I'm the Assistant Head for the Secondary Department at Priestley
Smith School. Priestley Smith's an all-age school. We teach visually impaired children.
RNIB, the staff have been to visit us on two or three occasions and have road tested some
of the images with the children.
[Hardy], you've got - what have you got? Olympic pictures over here?
Olympics, yeah.
And [Rushi], you've got...
[A snail].
They're very impressed by the standard of the images. They've always got opinions on
how they can be improved and they always like giving those opinions.
Normally when I look at pictures, I don't know what I'm looking at. So it's nice to
know what I'm looking at. Because you can actually feel the lines.
One of the things RNIB's been doing is they've set a particular standard and a way of formatting
these images and producing these images.
When we come to their examinations, they are going to be faced with work which is going
to be presented visually and they are going to be working with the equivalent large print
or tactile image. They need to be used to using those images in the examination situation.
I think what's really exciting about the opportunities that accessible graphics bring for people
of all ages is they open up a world of opportunity. Whether they're studying, whether they're
just taking part in daily life, whether it's a map of their bus station or a route to take
their children to school. Anything that allows people to join in, function independently
with inclusivity and an enjoyment.
My name's Mel Austin, I'm 72 years old now. I've been blind for five years. I was lucky
enough to be invited onto the panel which was actually developing Accessible Images
and so I thought there was a market for these things adapted to people of working age and,
as I now am, what are called older people who still want to be able to soak up information.
One of the outcomes we really would like to see from this big investment that RNIB's made
is that more people are inspired to try images. There are lots here to choose from; very simple
things right through to very complicated things and they are all accessible to blind and partially
sighted people of all ages. Give them a go, try them out, give them the descriptions,
talk them through it and inspire them and see what difference it makes.