Welcome to Hot Topics! Gabrielle Crichlow talks to guest Richard Rieman about audiobooks for children with special needs, like blindness or deafness.

In this episode, Gabrielle and Richard discuss the importance of making children's illustrated books accessible to blind, deaf, and neurodiverse children. Richard, the founder and CEO of Imagination Storybooks, explains how he and his team add audio description, sign language, captions, and Braille files to make the books accessible. Gabrielle and Richard emphasize the need to fill the gap in access to books for children with special needs, as over 5 million children in the US between the ages of three and eight are underserved.

Gabrielle and Richard also discuss the challenges faced by blind and low vision children who are not being taught Braille, and the difficulties faced by deaf children in finding books with sign language interpretation. They highlight the importance of reading for all children, as it opens up new worlds and experiences.

Imagination Storybooks, Richard's organization, is a nonprofit organization that creates audio books with audio description for all children, not just those with special needs. Their service can be accessed through the Imagination Storybooks website, and they offer a Storybooks Club for members to access the videos and audios. They have also collaborated with the Described and Captioned Media Program to provide free access to their videos for qualified individuals.

Richard emphasizes the importance of using live voice actors instead of artificial voices in audio books to capture the emotion and nuance of the stories. Imagination Storybooks aims to make children's books accessible to all children, not just those with disabilities. They are working with major publishers to create accessible books and are converting their books into different languages and Braille.

Overall, the episode highlights the unique approach of Imagination Storybooks in making children's illustrated books more accessible and the positive impact it has on children with special needs.

Who is Richard Rieman?
Richard Rieman (Ree’ man) wanted to be Superman, but he couldn’t fly, so he decided to be Clark Kent instead. After a long career as a radio news reporter, anchor, and Washington Bureau Chief, Richard turned his storytelling skills to the world of audiobooks. He has narrated and produced hundreds of Indie-published audiobooks and is the author of the award-winning book, “The Author’s Guide to Audiobook Creation.” Richard was a volunteer narrator for Learning Ally, reading books for the blind, as well as being a ski guide for blind skiers. Combining both interests, Richard created the “Imagination Storybooks” Nonprofit to make children’s illustrated books accessible to all children by creating audiobooks with audio description of the pictures for blind children, and video books with captions and sign language for deaf and neurodiverse children with learning challenges.

You can find Richard:
On the web # 1: https://imaginationstorybooks.org/
On the web # 2: https://imaginationstorybooks.org/join-the-storybooks-club/
On Facebook # 1: https://www.facebook.com/imaginationstorybooks
On Facebook # 2: https://www.facebook.com/AudiobookCreation
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imaginationstorybooks/
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/IStorybooksClub
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardrieman/

Promo:
Bring the magic of books to all children. Join the Imagination Storybooks Club! Club members will receive access to our library of children’s illustrated books in three formats:

1) Videos with ASL (American Sign Language) and captions
2) Videos with AD (Audio Description)
3) Audio files with AD

A new video every week! Bonus content for teachers and even personal Happy Birthday wishes from Winnie-the-Pooh.

Richard has a podcast. Listen and subscribe here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/audiobookwizard

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/EJaokCimA9k
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Original date of episode: April 13, 2023