At CNIB, we believe everyone should have the right to read. After learning the Ontario Library Service’s operating budget has been reduced by 50 per cent, forcing the Southern Ontario Library Service and Ontario Library Service North to suspend their inter-library loans service, we are disheartened.

The budgetary decision to cancel the inter-library loans service will disproportionately affect Ontarians with sight loss, and their ability to access library books in accessible formats.

Fewer than 10 per cent of reading material makes it into accessible formats like braille or audio. Insufficient funding for the inter-library loans service will leave Ontarians who are blind or partially sighted without access to current titles that other readers take for granted.

Reading — one of the daily activities affected most profoundly by sight loss — is critical to the success of a person who is blind or partially sighted living in a sighted world.

Early childhood literacy, education and access to books and other reading materials have a serious impact on a person’s commitment to education, ability to work and be fully included in society.

Ontarians who are blind or partially sighted have the right to read, and the right to a library that provides information in formats they can access. The provincial government must protect this lifeline to literacy.

Kat Clarke, CNIB Foundation (Ontario & Quebec)

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