LIONS RECORDING STUDIO "SPEAKING BOOK"

The Project seeks to develop an audio-library with all the technical materials necessary for its good functioning. The Project thus improves the socio-cultural integration of blind and visually impaired youth living in the city.

The target groups are blind and visually impaired children and teenagers from Saint-Petersburg (including children studying in specialized schools and orphanages).

The next step of the project is selection, recording and creation of library of CDs for blind and visually impaired children. The library will be unique because children can have all the information they are interested in not only in the library, they can borrow CD players with the disks for free for some period of time.

About 5.000 blind and visually impaired children and teenagers are living in Saint-Petersburg, and many of them, because of their disability are marginalized.

The present situation of disabled people in the Russian Federation is dramatic and very few measures have been taken so far by the Government to improve their everyday lives and integration into the society so that they can feel themselves as real members of the civil society.

The idea of the project of the creation of the recording studio and CD library for blind and visually impaired children was recommended by the city administration as one of the most actual programs for children and people with visual disabilities.

The problem of taking into account the situation of blind and visually impaired children and teenagers in the Russian Federation is very important as they have normal intellectual potential and the same deep and vital interests as citizens without physical impairment. It is thus an urgent need to create and develop this audio-library in Saint-Petersburg as it will enable them to have access to information, education and values of culture and be able to feel themselves as confident as others in their everyday lives fulfilling their dreams and expectations, regardless of their disability.

The project carries educational, cultural and social problems. It will give new opportunities to more than 500 blind and visually impaired children to access interesting fore them information on their rights, social aspects, classical ad modern literature, psychological issues etc.

Using the audio library people will become socially adapted, independent, assured of their own power, they can fill in the deficit of knowledge and become more educated that would give them confidence in future life. It will assist their integration into the world society.

The project is unique as there is only one place in the city where blind and visually impaired people can have access to audio materials – library by the Society of the Blind - but they have single records of works of art or musical compositions and don’t have any dedicated literature which is so essential for such people.