Singapore creates children’s books in Braille with tactile illustrations
In Singapore, former lawyer Lee Seow Ser, together with Hidayah Amin and Tan Ai Khim, is developing the To SIR (Socially Inclusive Reads) With Love initiative. It creates inclusive children’s books with Braille, tactile images and text designed for readers with dyslexia. This was reported by Channel NewsAsia.
The three women founded the initiative in 2015. Their first project was a version of Hidayah Amin’s award-winning children’s book The Mango Tree: its text was transliterated into Braille. A tactile image of a mango tree and its fruit was also created for the cover so that blind children could perceive the illustration by touch.
Books for shared reading
SIR has released two series — Little Kids, Big Ideas and I Am Unique. The books are provided to beneficiaries and public libraries, used in the initiative’s educational programmes, and sold in selected bookshops, at literary festivals and gift markets.
The Little Kids, Big Ideas series retells Asian stories and folklore plots. Its characters are children of different ethnic backgrounds, reflecting Singapore’s multicultural society. All books in the series combine text designed for readers with dyslexia, Braille and tactile illustrations.
According to Lee, the idea is for children to be able to read the same book regardless of their learning differences. The 2017 publication Sima Guang And The Giant Jar received recognition from the International Board on Books for Young People as an outstanding book for young people with disabilities. Some books were translated into Chinese and Malay in bilingual editions without tactile elements.
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Stories of people with disabilities
The I Am Unique series includes bilingual illustrated books about real people with special needs and disabilities. Topics include autism, Down syndrome, motor neurone disease and cerebral palsy. Two books devoted to glaucoma or blindness and deafblindness are also available in Braille.
Seven books in the series have been released so far, while the next edition, dedicated to thalassaemia — an inherited blood disorder — is due to be released at the end of September. In June 2026, the book My Name Is Siew Ling. I am Deafblind. about Tan Siew Ling, who lost her sight in childhood and her hearing in adulthood, was presented.
In addition to publishing, SIR holds educational events. In July, visitors at Punggol Library were told how the deafblind community communicates. In August, an event at an indoor climbing gym combined climbing, book discussions, a question-and-answer session and interaction with participants.
Lee left legal practice after 15 years of work. In 2024, she studied in a six-month social entrepreneurship programme, and in May 2025, the Singapore Kindness Movement included SIR in the Kindred Spirit Circle as a participant in the community movement.
