Abstract

I am working at Chofu public library as a librarian and I have a child with dyslexia.

10 years ago, I went to see the person responsible for library services for people with disabilities in my library to get an advice for my daughter who has difficulties in reading and came to know DAISY multimedia books for her. But at that time, DAISY multimedia books were not available in the library since there was no library service for children and young adults with dyslexia in Japan.

Considering this situation, I established a group of volunteers “Chofu DAISY” in order to produce DAISY multimedia books for those children. I also became a representative of the group to create better reading environment for them.

I disseminated information about people with dyslexia who has a problem to read printed books since they were not well recognized in Japan. And I promoted DAISY multimedia technology which is useful to help those children read. With this purpose, my group organized many lecture meetings and requested libraries to have DAISY multimedia books and a PC to read them.

Today, I can find a PC to read DAISY books and a bookshelf full of those books in my library. However, very few library users know such useful information. So, my challenge is to encourage children with dyslexia and their parents to ask libraries to provide a book in a readable format for them. The Japanese copyright law allows them to do it.

Finally, I would like to reiterate the critical importance of accessible publications.

Biography

Aya Makino is a librarian at Chofu Public library in Tokyo, Japan and a representative of Civic Group Chofu DAISY. A member of the Committee on the Library Services for Persons with Disabilities of Japan Library Association. The theme of her current activities as a librarian and mother of a child with dyslexia is to develop better support for children and young adults with special needs.