LG Uplus Donates 200 Braille Storybooks Created by Employees

LG Uplus employees creating a braille fairy tale book. Photo by LG Uplus

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Su-yeon] LG Uplus announced on the 6th that it will donate ‘braille fairy tale books’ directly created by its employees and their families to guarantee the right of visually impaired people to read books and to improve the braille illiteracy rate.

This braille fairy tale book production is part of LG Uplus’s social contribution activity for the visually impaired called ‘U+ Hope Books,’ in which 200 employees and their families participated. They used portable braille printers, guidebooks, and braille teaching materials provided by the company to create braille fairy tale books by attaching braille stickers to regular fairy tale books, and plan to donate the completed books to braille libraries nationwide.

Braille books are the most familiar medium for the visually impaired, but their annual publication accounts for only 0.2% of all books, and their price is more than five times higher than that of regular books, making them difficult for visually impaired people to access. In particular, the distribution rate of educational materials such as fairy tale books for learning braille is less than 1%, resulting in a braille illiteracy rate of about 86% among visually impaired people who lack learning opportunities.

LG Uplus is promoting social contribution activities to produce braille fairy tale books so that visually impaired people can more easily access braille books and use them for braille learning. The fairy tale books produced in braille are picture books titled ‘Yuppi and Friends,’ featuring characters from U+ Kids’ Land. Employees produced two volumes in braille: the first, ‘How to Enjoy Watermelon Deliciously,’ and the second, ‘Kkalkkalkkal Color Play,’ completing 100 copies of each, totaling 200 braille fairy tale books.

The completed braille fairy tale books will be donated to 32 libraries nationwide, including the National Library of Korea and the Korea Braille Library, which are visited annually by more than 44,000 visually impaired people. LG Uplus plans to sequentially deliver the braille books completed by employees and their families to each library.

The braille fairy tale books are used not only for the learning of visually impaired children but also for adult visually impaired people to learn braille. Additionally, visually impaired parents can use the braille fairy tale books to read to their non-disabled children.

Lee Myung-seop, a manager at LG Uplus who participated in the U+ Hope Books social contribution activity, said, “Through the activity of attaching braille stickers to regular fairy tale books with my child, the children were able to naturally come into contact with braille,” and added, “I will continue to participate in the U+ Hope Books activities in the future.”

LG Uplus plans to continue the U+ Hope Books, which produce braille fairy tale books, as an annual social contribution activity next year. Through the activity of making and donating one braille fairy tale book every month, they plan to donate a total of 15 braille fairy tale books by October next year.

Park Hyung-il, LG Uplus CRO (Vice President), said, “Although it has been almost 100 years since the Korean braille was promulgated, braille for the visually impaired is still rare and hard to find in daily life,” and added, “We will not make one-time donations but will continuously produce and donate braille fairy tale books every month according to the publication schedule of the Yuppi and Friends picture fairy tales.”

Meanwhile, the first phase of ‘U+ Hope Books,’ which LG Uplus started last year, saw about 400 employees participate from March to August last year, producing 37,810 pages, equivalent to about 145 volumes, of electronic books (e-books) for the visually impaired. Considering that it generally takes seven months to produce one electronic book for the visually impaired, this achievement is equivalent to completing about 84 years’ worth of work in just eight months.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.