News and Events

Living Paintings

The Living Paintings free library supports blind and partially sighted adults, children and young people. They make special raised versions of pictures that come to life when fingers feel them.  Sound recordings tell the pictures' stories while directing the fingertips across the tactile image, describing what is being touched, felt and 'seen'. The tactile story books for children called Living Picture Books also include clear braille sheets between each page of text so they can read the text of the story themselves.
These 'touch and sound' packs are designed to be shared with sighted friends, family, group members and class mates. Subjects include: science, history, famous works of art, the natural world, city tours, gardens, great buildings, curriculum based topics and many well-loved children's books.  The tactile packs and books, specifically designed for different ages, provide access for those who cannot see to interesting, stimulating and enjoyable pictures. The breadth, scope and range of the packs increases continuously. All the Living Paintings' packs are distributed to blind and visually impaired children, young people and adults throughout Britain and Ireland via their FREE, postal Library Service.
Lifeline 4 Kids are proud to have funded the production of 20 copies of a new Living Picture Book 'One Mole Digging a Hole' for the use of blind and partially sighted children at a cost of £2,500, and look forward to it arriving in the Living Paintings' library in 2011.  The completed book will have four fabulous feely pictures, all brightly painted, including a mole, snake, parrot, bear, fox, frog and stork, and will be accompanied by clear braille sheets between the book pages, and an audio description which tells the story and describes the pictures that can be felt.