ChinaDaily USA
8th Sept 2020
Shanxi Library goes extra mile for visually impaired
By Sun Ruisheng in Taiyuan and Li Yang in Beijing
Apart from offering Braille books, the Shanxi Library in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, is trying its best to satisfy the needs of the visually impaired by reading books aloud and playing movies accompanied by real-time narration.
Ren Xiangshu, a librarian in the reading room for the visually impaired, regularly serves as a movie narrator while "showing" films. Ren said the audiences enjoy the process very much because her vivid narration triggers their imagination.
The library, the largest public one in the province, founded the first reading zone for the visually impaired in Shanxi around 2005, and upgraded it to the reading room, where Ren works, after it was relocated to its current site in 2013.
Improvements of its facilities and its capacity to provide more tailor-made services mean the library can do more to help physically challenged people enjoy reading, said Wang Jianjun, curator of the library.
It is hoped that the reading room, with the colorful activities it hosts, can become a window to the world for its intended occupants.