Deirdre’s powerful letter urges the major parties to commit to funding our NSW library. Minsters have told us that your letters are reaching them and they understand why it’s vital. Until our NSW library is safe and we receive a formal commitment for funding, we need to maintain the pressure. Take action and help protect our NSW library.
Deirdre’s message:
I am writing to you on behalf of my 90-year-old mother, Alice Collins who is legally blind because of macular degeneration. She was always an avid reader when she had sight, and she relies totally on the Vision Australia library to receive literature in accessible versions so that she can enjoy the right to equal access to information, just like everyone else.
Over the past few years, as a client of Vision Australia, she has been able to listen to hundreds of audio books that I have downloaded on her behalf from this wonderful library.Audio books have brought a whole new part of her life. I go online and pick the books she’s after and pop them on a USB. She gets so excited. She’s frail so having access to the library is such as an important part of her staying active. She is able to access books for her book club this way. She’s also a champion at trivia because she has access to information, and it has kept her going. She’d be heartbroken if the library no longer existed.
This one-of-a-kind service in Australia provides tens of thousands of recreational and informational reading materials in formats that anyone who is blind or has low vision and with a print disability can access.
Therefore, without this library, my mother will no longer have equal access to the suite of books, magazines and newspapers she relies on to stay connected to the community. It will remove an important part of her life, which is already constrained because of her disability, which has deprived her of her previous hobbies such as watercolour painting and gardening.
The party who represents my mother’s rights and those of the tens of thousands of people who are blind, have low vision or another print disability, gets my vote.
Can you please commit to ensuring Vision Australia’s library service in NSW receives the financial assistance it requires in order to remain viable?