Book Fair sends message of inclusiveness

NEW DELHI: Walking around the theme pavilion at the New Delhi World Book Fair, one can spot a range of aides for the visually impaired -- Braille geometry sets, chess boards, a set of playing cards, but oddly enough, not many books.

The visible shortage of literature for people with disability at the fair themed, “Books for Readers with Special Needs”, can be attributed to the dearth of publishers working in the sector, said one of the officials from National Book Trust (NBT). “When we started working on this theme, we realised there was very little work done in this sector by publishers, and that remains our main aim -- to sensitise the publishing fraternity to address this need,” Neera Jain, chief editor and joint director, NBT, said.

Disappointment over the lack of books for individuals with special needs was also expressed by Narayani Kaushik, a hearing-impaired student of psychology, who had been looking forward to the fair, particularly because of its theme this year. She hoped to find material on disabilities beyond physical ones to make herself more aware.

“I like that they have done extensive work for blind people, but I could not find a single book on sign language, or books on different forms of mental disorders, that would have been helpful,” Kaushik told PTI on Sunday.