March to Parliament on 28 March 2007
On 28 March 2007 over 250 blind, partially sighted and dyslexic children and their parents and teachers descended on Westminster to lobby their MP.
As well as talking to their MP many of the children were delighted to meet author and Children's Laureate Jacqueline Wilson, who came to lobby her own MP about getting more books in large print, audio and braille.
Speakers included Annette Brooke MP, Liberal Democrat Children's Spokesperson and Tim Loughton MP, Conservative Children's Spokesperson. Kay Wrench a qualified teacher of visually impaired people outlined the problems faced by teachers in making textbook information accessible to children. We also heard first hand from a parent, Paul Blecker, about the difficulties of getting books for his partially sighted daughter to read. John Palmer, Chair of the Right to Read Alliance concluded with a call to Government to tackle the problem centrally.
The children's lobby of Parliament was a definite success. The Government had previously denied there was a problem and insisted it wasn't a national issue for government but one for individual schools to address. However after MPs met with children, teachers and parents they acknowledged the issue and set up meetings between Government departments, publishers and organisations including RNIB.