Best Sensory and Tactile Books for People with Disabilities Introduced

According to the Iran Book News Agency (IBNA), this festival was held at two levels: children and adolescents with special needs, and school teachers and Kanun instructors in this field, and in two sections: book introduction films and the creation of sensory and tactile books.

Based on this, 740 works were produced across the country, with about 20% of them sent to the General Directorate of Cultural Creations. The judging panels ultimately evaluated 148 submitted works from various provinces. In the book introduction section, titled the national campaign #TheBookILove, out of 83 films that reached the final stage, four works were introduced as winners and four as commendable, both receiving a plaque and cash prize, while 5 works successfully received a certificate of appreciation.

Participants in this section included children and adolescents aged 7 and above with physical-motor disabilities, hearing impairment, visual impairment, and Down syndrome, who introduced a book to their audience in a creative, attractive way, making a short film to the best of their abilities.

Meanwhile, the judging panel for the sensory and tactile books section, titled the national campaign #EveryInstructorTeacherASensoryTactileBook (creation of sensory-tactile books by teachers and instructors) and the campaign #EveryInstructorTeacherASimplifiedBook (creation of books with simple words for children with hearing impairment), finally selected three works as winners and two as commendable out of 65 works that reached the final section, awarding them cash prizes. Five other teachers and instructors also received certificates of appreciation. Participants in this section included teachers from special education schools and instructors from all cultural, artistic, and inclusive centers of the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (Kanun).

Sensory-tactile books, with embossed images and Braille, are designed in such a way that blind, visually impaired, and even children without visual problems can interact with them, doubling their enjoyment of reading. Additionally, simplified books are prepared with simple text and words so that children and adolescents with special hearing needs can easily use them.

The selected books from the second edition of the festival will also be sent to various provinces of the country next year as part of the “Book Journey” program, so that children and adolescents, and teachers and instructors of children with special needs, can benefit from these works.

The Ruyesh Festival, whose secretariat is located in the General Directorate of Cultural Creations of the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, believes that the education and training of children and adolescents with special needs, beyond formal school education, requires diverse cultural, artistic, and skill-based programs. It emphasizes that this group of students, like their peers, should have the opportunity to experience, learn, and grow in a dynamic and inspiring environment.

The Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, along with the country’s Special Education Organization, and based on a memorandum of understanding signed between the two organizations, also holds the “We Are Empowered Together” event simultaneously with the Ruyesh Festival on December 3rd, International Day of Persons with Disabilities, across the country. This festival, in its effort to establish educational and cultural justice, has tried to provide a platform for discovering talents, nurturing skills, and creating equal opportunities for children and adolescents with special needs so that they can participate in society with greater confidence and follow their life path alongside others.

Announcement of Judging Results for Book Introduction Films:

Based on the votes of the judging panel, including Maliheh Bagheri, Shiva Jafari, and Arezou Jiroudi, and among the 83 films that reached the final section, without considering ranking, 4 films were introduced as winners of this section: Ariana Pourghazi (adolescent from Golestan province), Zoha Dehghani (young child from Yazd province), Mohsen Dehdast (early reader from West Azerbaijan province), and Abtin Kiani (adolescent from Hamadan province).

Also, the joint work of two young children, Amirabbas Khorram and Mohammad Taha Mahmoudzadeh from Mazandaran province, Zahra Faraji (early reader from Razavi Khorasan province), Taranom Ahmadi (young child from Hamadan province), and Niloufar Zarein (pre-teen from Yazd province) were recognized as commendable works. Additionally, Ali Bayati (young child from Razavi Khorasan province), Paniz Javanmard (pre-teen from Semnan province), Sana Bouzar (young child from Golestan province), Fatemehzahra Bay (young child from Golestan province), and Maryam Sabaghi (adolescent from Kerman province) successfully received certificates of appreciation.

Announcement of Judging Results for Sensory and Tactile Books:

The judging panel for the “Production of Sensory-Tactile Books” section of the second Ruyesh Festival in the year 1404, including Maryam Khaksar Tehrani, Parvaneh Ansar, and Mahtab Shahidi, after reviewing 65 submitted works to the secretariat, announced the selected, commendable, and certificate-worthy works without considering ranking. Accordingly, three books were introduced as winners of this section: “A Party in the Meadow” by Akram Yousefi in collaboration with Reyhaneh Kargar and with Braille text by Gholamali Ghorbanali from the Cultural and Artistic Center of Kanun in Najafabad, Isfahan province; “Your Feelings” by Fatemeh Mahmoudi from Kanun Center in Miyaneh, East Azerbaijan province; and “Moushi and Nothing” by Nasrin Riyavandi from Kanun Center No. 18 in Tehran.

Two sensory and tactile books, “Cloud Lambs” by Vajiheh Amini from Kanun Isfahan and “Three-Dot Worm” by Marzieh Mansouri from Kanun Center No. 30 in Tehran, were recognized as commendable. Additionally, certificates of appreciation were received by the books “Friendship” by Ghazaleh Tighafshan from Dr. Khazaeili Special Education School No. 2 in Gilan province; “Goodnight Little Bear” a joint work by Tahereh Shahverdi, Naghmeh Ataei, and Somayeh Tavakoli from Kanun Isfahan province; “The Ugly Duckling” by Khadijeh Eftekari from Omidvar Special Education School in Bandar Gaz, Golestan province; “A Big House the Size of a Forest” a simplified and sensory-tactile book by Laya Abdollahi from Mohammad Mardaniazar Special Education School in Tabriz, East Azerbaijan province; and “You Are Golden Beak” by Fatemeh Akhoundi from Kanun Center in Dargaz, Razavi Khorasan province.