Press Release issued: 30 November 2012.
SCOTLAND'S Makar Liz Lochhead will celebrate both Book Week Scotland and St Andrew's Day today by transcribing her one of her own poems into braille.
As Scotland's national laureate, she is taking up an invitation from sight loss charity RNIB Scotland to try her hand at turning a poem or short story into braille or audio format.
Liz will bring along her own 'Poem to My Sister' to the charity's transcription centre in Partick this afternoon. The poem first appeared in Liz's debut collection, which marks its 40th anniversary this year.
During Book Week Scotland, RNIB Scotland wants to highlight the fact that only seven per cent of books published ever make it into formats accessible to blind or partially sighted readers.
Liz said: "I am very happy to endorse RNIB Scotland's campaign to have more books published in formats such as audio and braille. Literature is a shared experience and should be available to all."
Staff at the centre have guided members of the public through the transcription process as part of Book Week Scotland, which ends on Sunday after seven days of promoting the joys of all things literary. Visitors have been able to take a turn in the RNIB recording studio or try their hand at producing braille - and have taken home their copy of the work they have produced.
Braille is the system of raised dots invented by Louis Braille (1809-52) who was himself blind since the age of four. The system is based on variations of six dots, arranged in two columns of three. Grade 1 braille mostly represents each letter as one 'cell', but many experienced braille users read and write Grade 2 braille, a shorthand form where groups of letters are combined into a single cell.
RNIB sends out 1.5 million talking books across the UK each year and almost 34,000 braille and giant print books. The youngest reader is six years old and the oldest over 100. It takes five days on average to record a RNIB Talking Book and costs £2,500, and £1,500 to produce a book in braille and the charity relies on public support to continue its work.