A book in Braille, with blank pages and -

CTEB

  • Give to touch the books that cannot be seen.

    This is the mission that a Toulouse association has given itself.

  • The Braille Translation and Publishing Center transposes and manufactures the books in Braille.

    Eclectic, he knows how to keep up to date and has taken the turn of children's literature.

  • At the moment, he is tackling the Harry Potter Saga and the great Disney classics.

It takes more than a magic wand to bring the world of Harry Potter and the Disney Princesses within the reach of blind children or visually impaired teens.

But in Toulouse, the Center for transcription and edition in braille (CTEB) found the formula thanks to the not at all dusty "bookworms" of its reading committee and the enthusiasm of its two young braille transcribers, and not translators because “braille is not a language, it is a code”.

This association transposes "black" books, in other words printed, manufactures them, sells them, sends them to readers then, if necessary, collects the large volumes with white and embossed pages to supply its second-hand collection.

“With our 1,700 references, we want to make information and culture accessible to the blind,” summarizes Denis Guérin, CTEB's communications officer.

Flair and renewal

The center is already known in its niche for sniffing out the winners of major literary awards, so that it was able to release the braille version of

L'Anomalie

in two weeks.

He knows how to get up to date, alternating a Maxime Chattam trilogy with personal development manuals, or "life stories", important for a readership in demand for "resilience".

And above all, he did not miss the turn of the revival of children's literature.

With, in this confined year, two challenges.

One, well underway, is the transposition of the Hogwarts Wizard's Saga.

The other is in its early stages and consists of seizing the 100th anniversary of the giant Disney to tackle its great classics, from Peter Pan to Bambi, without forgetting any princess.

With, as a technical novelty, the insertion of an illustration to touch by story.

"This series of tales seems important to us for blind children and their perhaps nostalgic parents," explains Frédérique Allessandri.

At 28, this literature graduate, absolute fan of Harry Potter and who fell into transcription "a little by chance", is enjoying herself.

"I read all day and in addition I feel useful," said the one who with her young colleague, Céline, insisted out of taste to get into Disney.

Files and encoding

Not easy.

Because it was necessary to find reissues of tales less than ten years old.

It is on this condition that the National Library of France (BNF) sends - free of charge thanks to an authorization - the text files to the CTEB.

To work, Frédérique and Céline always keep the book, the "real one", in front of their eyes.

"It's our contribution to copyright," slips the inveterate reader.

"We encode the text in full abbreviated Braille so that the dialogues, paragraphs, proper names are well transcribed," she explains.

Then, a specialized software refines the whole and the computer file is sent to the workshop.

The Arsène Lupines and the Jules Vernes are in the pipes.

With for the CTEB the same excitement, the same uncertainties, as in the traditional publishing houses.

“When we look at sales, we sometimes have surprises, good or not so good,” jokes the transcriber.

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  • Disney

  • Harry potter

  • Literature

  • Toulouse

  • Handicap

  • Culture

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