MPs Calls For More Support For Visually Impaired Children In A 'Ten Minute Rule Bill'

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 8th Sep 2004

Local MP Annette Brooke has been given the opportunity to introduce a Bill in the House of Commons under the "Ten Minute Rule", which gives her just ten minutes to make a case for new legislation on a narrow and specific issue.

MP calls for more support for visually impaired children

Working with the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), where she is undertaking a 'secondment scheme', Annette Brooke will call for "Provision for Access to Literature for Visually Impaired Children" in new legislation.

Annette has recently met with a family in her constituency with a baby born blind who feel very isolated, and fear for the child's education in the future.

Annette will say: "Children who are visually impaired or who have other reading disabilities such as dyslexia are not getting the accessible information they need to ensure they have opportunities equal to their non-disabled pees, both in education and in leisure reading.

"Currently, there is no national co-ordination of accessible information for schools, leading to duplication and resource wastage. I am concerned about the adequacy of funding for visually impaired children."

Given the relatively small number of blind and partially sighted children in the school population, too much financial responsibility has been put on individual schools to provide for a child's needs. The Bill will also call for an online database containing all accessible format works available from the commercial sector as well as not-for-profit sector.

Annette Brooke's Bill will call for a national co-ordination of accessible format materials in schools and for more support nationally for libraries to provide more accessible formats. The Bill also calls for the lifting of VAT on audio books that many people with reading disabilities rely on to access literature.

A Ten Minute Rule Bill has very little chance of becoming law, but can highlight a gap in services and raises the profile of important issues that need more awareness.