A generous gift is helping to bring the world of books to children with visual impairment.

The Barbara Ward Children’s Foundation has donated £25,000 towards the cost of the National Blind Children’s Society (NBCS) state-of-the-art digitalised book production department at its head office in Highbridge, Somerset.

In 2008 the NBCS CustomEyes book department more than doubled since the end of 2007, producing 8825 large-print books in 12,500 volumes (one book can take up several volumes once it has been reformatted to a larger font size) for children with a visual impairment.

Since January 2008 NBCS added more than 350 titles to the catalogue but still have 216 waiting on its wish-list of titles requested, many of them text books.

To fulfil this demand CustomEyes is moving to a larger office space which will enable NBCS to expand and upgrade its publishing operations.

New digital printers, binders and specialised software, part funded by the Barbara Ward Children’s Foundation grant, will enable NBCS to reduce costs and therefore offer a wider range of books to a higher standard and with a much faster turnaround time.