Albury LibraryMuseum teams up with Vision Australia to give vision-impaired people access to exhibitions

The library has teamed up with Vision Australia to give vision-impaired people access to Class Rules: Educating Albury since 1850.

Ms Trost and her guide dog Zoe visited the exhibition on Friday to test out the hand-held devices called Penfriends that communicate detail of the exhibition.

“There is a tactile marker on the corner of the box – we can feel for that marker and next to it is a label,” she said.

“We then swipe the label with the Penfriend, and it will read out what the display is.

“It gives vision-impaired people the opportunity to go to the library and not have to ask a sighted person to tell us what’s on the display.”

Vision Australia orientation, mobility and access technology specialist Maruthi Ramisetty said the idea to integrate Penfriends into displays came about during a routine assessment of accessibility at the library.

“The Penfriend is not a new concept at all; it’s in the market and many people use it at home, but we translated that concept into the museum,” he said.

“Vision-impaired people haven’t been able to access an exhibition before, because it’s all written, and things are in boxes, so they can’t touch it.

“This gives independence and freedom.”

Mr Ramisetty said staff had been engaged in training, made recordings for the Penfriends and could also offer visitors an android phone to borrow that uses a KNFB reader.

“The borrower simply takes a photo of the text on the wall near the display and the app will convert the text to a voice recording,” he said.

“The LibraryMuseum was very proactive.”

Ms Trost said she was excited about what the partnership between the library and Vision Australia could mean and hoped it might even extend to books, to foster even further independence.

“I’m really happy that the council has supported something like this,” she said.

“The LibraryMuseum has tried to make life better for us and we appreciate it.”