Press Release issued - 20 August 2010.
Award-winning author Kate Atkinson has lent her backing to a national campaign to make more literature accessible to people with sight loss.
Atkinson will be reading from her newly published novel 'Started Early, Took My Dog' at an event organised today by the Royal National Institute of Blind People Scotland at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
RNIB Scotland is launching a braille and audio version of the novel at the Festival this afternoon, just one day after it was published in hardback. But the charity is pointing out that only around five per cent of books published in the UK ever make it into alternative formats.
Atkinson, whose first novel 'Behind the Scenes at the Museum' won the Whitbread Book of the Year prize in 1995, said: "I am absolutely delighted that RNIB Scotland has transcribed my latest novel and released it just one day after its mainstream publication. I couldn't imagine not being able to read, or being limited to the tiny number of books that are available in accessible formats. Literature should not be denied to people with sight loss.
"I fully support the campaign to make more books available in formats such as braille and audio and am very pleased that my books are available in these versions. I'm looking forward to meeting members of RNIB Scotland and hearing their views about reading."
She follows James Kelman, Janice Galloway and AL Kennedy among authors who have previously supported RNIB Scotland with readings from their work at the Book Festival.
John Legg, director of RNIB Scotland, said: "We are very pleased to have such an internationally renowned and popular author as Kate Atkinson launch our transcribed version of her latest novel.
"Whether literature is read as words on a page, touched using braille, or heard on audio, the skill and feeling conveyed in the writer's art can still be enjoyed by all.
"But we also want to highlight the fact that only five per cent of published books ever make it into alternative formats such as braille or audio. That's a very small proportion - needlessly small, given the potential of today's new technology. We'd like to see many more books made available in accessible formats.
"But it takes five days on average to record a RNIB 'talking book' and costs between £1,000 and £2,500. So we do need the support of the public.
"For example, we have only been able to hold this event thanks, once again, to sponsorship from the construction company City Building LLP (whose manufacturing division RSBi employs 30 visually impaired workers)."
Willie Docherty, managing director of City Building said: "RSBi is one of Europe's largest supported factories and employs some 260 people, over 50 per cent of whom have a disability. This includes 30 visually impaired workers, all of whom do exactly the same job as their sighted colleagues. That is why we are delighted to support a campaign that makes more literature accessible to people with sight loss."