"We would really be very poor if we did not have access to digital". In one sentence, Pierre Marragou, president of the GIAA / apiDV, summarizes the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic on his association, the aim of which is to "support, promote and integrate the visually impaired".
Since the closure in France of "places receiving the public that are not essential to the life of the country", the offer of many cultural players has been posted on the Web. However, guided tours of the museum for the blind and visually impaired have been suspended. Pierre Marragou therefore launched a newsletter, "Confined Times", to relay podcasts, radio programs, audio books and general information intended for the visually impaired, that is to say approximately 1.7 million people according to the Federation of the Blind and amblyopes from France.
For its least connected beneficiaries - often the oldest - the GIAA / apiDV has set up a systematic call system. A way to reduce their isolation, in a context of accelerated dematerialization of social life, which "poses very blatantly the question of digital accessibility. […] Accessibility, too, of the cultural offer on the Internet", notes Pierre Marragou.
Even today, many sites escape the text-to-speech systems used by the blind, because they lack audio description content or contain many photos.
However, "the right to culture is the same for everyone", underlines Adeline Coursant, director of the Center for Transcription and Editing in Braille (CTEB). Despite the Covid-19, his company has not stopped making books for those who master Braille - 15% of the blind, according to the Valentin Hauÿ association.
Daily, a technician from the center operates his reprographic machines. The volumes are sent to readers every day that Swiss Post operates. But individual orders showed a "small drop", notes Adeline Coursant, who had restocked with special paper on the eve of confinement. Costly to produce, "the books we sell are still very expensive," she observes. However, "in a period of confinement, people pay a little more attention to their expenses".
Download Links and Remote Tours
For its part, the GIAA / apiDV team, in teleworking, continues to manage the Accessible Francophone Digital Library (BNFA) in partnership with the BrailleNet association. Transcription of books and magazines, voice recording and sending of audio files to visually impaired people or their relatives. Sign of the times (containment): download links have replaced CDs. "We try to do the best", puts Pierre Marragou into perspective.
To compensate for the closure of cultural venues, the Center Recherche Théâtre Handicap (CRTH) has adapted its "Image Souffleurs" service. Instead of accompanying the visually impaired to the museum or the show to describe works of art in the palm of their ear or in the palm of their hand, the volunteer artists offer "remote blowing" by phone, based on content posted online by institutions such as the Rmn-Grand Palais, the Nantes Art Museum or the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Become blind "more than 20 years ago", Brigitte C. "savor" this new cultural offer, which she describes as a "change of scenery" conducive to "developing a mental image" of different types of works. "I did not expect such a rebound," said Catherine Mangin, head of service at the CRTH, who received 56 requests from March 20 to April 10. Proof that "direct exchange, having someone human on the phone" especially counts in time of confinement.
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