Children's Braille Dictionary Restores Right To Read

Yet, behind these well-meaning efforts lies a group long left behind — children with visual impairments who continue to face limited access to reading materials due to a chronic shortage of books in Braille.

The absence of such basic resources is not merely an issue of convenience, but a reflection of a growing Braille literacy crisis. Today, visually impaired children rely heavily on audio materials and smartphones, resulting in a steady decline in tactile reading skills — even though Braille remains the foundation of their education.

Without Braille, opportunities to grasp spelling, sentence structure and vocabulary development become severely restricted. While sighted children have a wide range of options to learn letters and basic reading concepts, why are visually impaired pupils not afforded the same right?

 

Data from the Malaysian Book Publishers Association (MABOPA) recorded more than 240,000 new book titles published over a five-year period (2009-2014). However, none were produced in Unicode Braille (which enables Braille digitisation), effectively limiting access for persons with visual impairments (OKU) to gain knowledge through reading materials.

In an interview with Bernama, Hakimi Hassan, founder and trustee of the Malaysian Foundation for the Blind (YOBM), said the gap goes beyond a lack of materials, describing it as a structural crisis with long-term consequences.

 “If even newly published books each year are not available in Braille format, how are students supposed to familiarise themselves with the reference materials they should have?” she said, adding that Braille literacy risks declining as attention shifts increasingly toward digital access.

 (YOBM is a non-profit organisation registered under the Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister’s Department. It provides specialised services for persons with visual impairments, including assistive technology, education and welfare support.)

In the current landscape, blind children increasingly depend on audio, video and internet-based resources for learning. While helpful, digital materials cannot replace the tactile function of Braille, which is essential for understanding spelling, syllable structure and vocabulary building.

According to Hakimi, over-reliance on audio learning often leaves pupils unable to independently read simple texts such as labels or instructions, undermining their autonomy and academic performance.

“In special education schools, teachers try to fill this gap with their own creativity. But without consistent basic materials, learning often starts from scratch. That is why a basic dictionary is the most crucial starting point,” he stressed.

That gap is now being addressed by YBOM through the Illustrated Malay-English Braille Dictionary for Children project, the first of its kind produced in the country since March 2025. To date, more than 230 volumes of the dictionary have been distributed to three special education schools (SK Klang, SKPK Jalan Batu and SMKPK Setapak), with plans to expand distribution to 35 special education schools nationwide by next year.

“A bilingual dictionary is a fundamental necessity for students. To date, no bilingual dictionary has been provided by the Ministry of Education or schools — even for mainstream pupils. The difference is that sighted students can still buy one from bookstores. Visually impaired students, however, have no specialised bilingual dictionary available in the market,” he said.

 

Designed like a child-friendly mini encyclopaedia —  with alphabets paired with images — producing the dictionary requires far greater technical precision than standard books. A single Braille character occupies nearly four times the space of a printed letter.

As a result, a 10-page textbook can expand to 40 pages when converted into Braille.

Hakimi said the team had to reduce the number of word examples, compress content and remove non-essential graphics to ensure each page remains manageable for young children learning tactile reading.

This is why a basic A to Z dictionary ultimately became five separate volumes.

“In conventional printing, 26 letters should fit into one slim book. But in Braille, one letter can take several pages. We had to limit each letter to just eight to 16 examples so pupils are not overwhelmed,” he explained.

Printing posed another major hurdle, as most mainstream printing companies do not cater to small-volume Braille paper orders. Some even impose a minimum requirement of 100,000 copies.

YOBM eventually opted for a more demanding but practical solution — manually producing each volume using standard printers and two in-house embosser machines.

Funded through internal resources and sponsorships, the dictionaries were produced according to pupil needs:B1 (totally blind and fully reliant on Braille); B2 and B3 (severely limited vision requiring a combination of Braille and high-contrast visuals).

The dictionaries integrate Braille with high-contrast images to help B2 and B3 pupils form mental representations of objects, strengthen early comprehension and prevent “conceptual blindness” as vision deteriorates.

Producing such visuals also comes with high costs, including colour ink expenses.

“Only original ink can be used. Cheaper ink damages printers because they are not designed for this workload,” Hakimi explained, estimating that a RM500 printer lasts only a few months before needing repairs or replacement.

He added that Braille dictionaries must be continuously reproduced, as their lifespan is relatively short — about six to seven months — before embossed dots begin to flatten if the book is not carefully maintained.

Braille embossing equipment adds yet another layer of complexity. YOBM currently operates only two embosser units imported from Sweden, each involving high purchase, maintenance and spare-part costs.

“Honestly, if you add up all the equipment — embossers, ink, printers, Braille paper and spare parts — since we started this project in March 2025, the cost runs into hundreds of thousands of ringgit,” he shared.

“If one embosser breaks down, our production capacity immediately drops by half,” he added, noting that these hidden costs form the backbone of the entire publishing operation.

 

Meanwhile, YOBM Publishing Officer and Information Technology Trainer Andy Boo Teck Joo said each dictionary set is produced through a combination of manual and digital processes.

Although the process is time-consuming, even with specialised software and IT tools, Boo said it is  unavoidable as every Braille word must be accurate.

“Each Braille character is carefully typed using a specialised Braille keyboard. I review the text before converting it using text-to-Braille software. The dictionary pages are then formatted using the Duxbury Braille Translator, where spacing and layout must be adjusted precisely for printing,” he explained.

However, physical printing remains the greatest challenge.

“One embosser unit costs RM37,000 and is extremely sensitive. For printers, sheets must be fed one by one. Any mistake affects both text and images,” he said, adding that the entire process is personally supervised.

Despite digital advancements, production capacity remains limited, with only 10 sets produced per day.

 

Hakimi said YOBM initially began with a bilingual Malay–English adult dictionary combining Braille for both languages.

Although its publication was limited by technical and financial constraints, the experience proved invaluable for developing the children’s dictionary.

“The adult dictionary project opened our eyes to the vast gap in Braille literacy,” he said.

He added that the experience also deepened YOBM’s understanding of special education pedagogy. Teachers emphasised that children require simple, illustrated and consistent basic vocabulary.

“Children’s content cannot simply be adapted from adult versions. It must be carefully restructured. Our research and development involved collaboration with special education teachers, university lecturers and the Ministry of Education, as well as studies of mainstream children’s book formats adapted for blind learners,” he said.

Looking ahead, YOBM aims to produce more modern multilingual dictionaries and develop a digital library equipped with text-to-speech features, audiobooks and additional learning modules.

“We want Braille literacy to be a right, not a privilege,” he said, outlining the foundation’s vision of building an inclusive learning ecosystem and a more independent future for visually impaired generations.