Seoul 50+ Volunteer Group Produces and Donates 1,000 Braille Tactile Cards for Visually Impaired Children

Promotion of Volunteer Activity for Producing Educational Tools for Visually Impaired Children Learning Braille
111 Members of 50+ Volunteer Group Participate, Receive Kits to Create Tactile Cards at Home via Non-Face-to-Face Method

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul 50 Plus Foundation has launched support for the production of braille tactile word cards, a braille learning tool, this year to improve language acquisition and educational environments for visually impaired children.

There are approximately 300,000 visually impaired people in Korea, with a braille illiteracy rate of 95% and a braille book distribution rate of only 1%. Furthermore, educational tools that allow visually impaired children to learn braille through study and play are severely lacking. To increase literacy among the visually impaired and provide more opportunities for language education, the foundation promoted a campaign in which the 50+ Volunteer Group directly produced braille learning tools.

The 111 members of the ‘50+ Volunteer Group’ each received kits at home and participated in volunteer activities remotely, resulting in the creation of 1,000 braille tactile word cards.

The 111 members of the ‘50+ Volunteer Group,’ who were publicly recruited through the 50+ Portal, participated remotely by producing the braille tactile word card kits sent to their homes and sending them back to the foundation. The braille tactile word cards, painstakingly hand-stitched by the 50+ volunteers, are three-dimensional educational learning tools that visually impaired children can touch and feel with their fingertips. A total of 20 sets of braille tactile word cards (50 cards per set) will be delivered to 20 children who are either learning braille for the first time or have combined visual and hearing impairments.

The foundation will donate the 1,000 completed braille tactile word cards to various social welfare facilities. On the 10th, 200 braille tactile word cards were delivered to the Nowon-gu Municipal Welfare Center for the Visually Impaired. Going forward, the foundation plans to sequentially donate to five welfare institutions and learning support centers for the visually impaired located in Seoul where visually impaired children study.

Lee Hae-woo, Acting CEO of the Seoul 50 Plus Foundation, said, “This braille tactile word card production campaign by the foundation is not simply a donation of goods but a meaningful non-face-to-face communication activity that provides language education to visually impaired children and social participation opportunities to volunteers.” He added, “The foundation will continue to support the 50+ generation’s participation in timely social problem-solving.”