The team of the educational project of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ "Study the Internet & Govern It!" donated equipment to the St. Petersburg State Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired (SLBVI), which will help its employees create high-quality content for the website and social networks, as well as take an active part in online events and conferences.
The charitable idea appeared in the spring of this year, when "Study the Internet & Govern It!" became the winner of the Youth Digital Ombudsman’s Digitalization for Good Award in the nomination “For Contribution to Increasing the Level of Digital Literacy of Citizens and Promoting Lawful Behavior in the Digital Space”. It was decided to spend the money prize on a good deed - to help the St. Petersburg Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired, which in 2021 tested a game-based learning module for optically challenged that was being prepared for launch for the project in 2021. The module, consisting of five simulators on the topics "How a Computer works", "Personal Data", "Artificial Intelligence" and others, is compatible with screen readers; it also passed voluntary certification, having received a sign of accessibility for people with disabilities.
Library specialists note that this work was important and significant: “in today's dynamically developing world, it is important to keep abreast of not only news and events, but also how to behave correctly in the internet space. For optically challenged users, this issue is as relevant as for everyone else. It is extremely important to convey information in a way that will be accessible and convenient for them.”
The St. Petersburg State Special Central Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired is an interregional coordinating center for working with people with disabilities of various categories for special libraries in the Northwestern Federal District, a methodological center for public libraries in St. Petersburg and a consultation center for working with people with disabilities for cultural institutions. Major methodological events are regularly held at the library site.
The mission of the library is creation and development of an open and accessible information, consulting and intellectual environment for people with special needs in order to involve them in the cultural, social and scientific life of society. According to the staff:
“A library is not only a place where books are stored and borrowed, but also a platform for socialization, exchange of experience and knowledge. Meetings with writers, meetings of book and conversational clubs, historical and local history talks, as well as literary and musical evenings and concerts are regularly held within the walls of the SLBVI.”
Among the services of the library there are unique ones: for example, the work of librarians-readers and a home service department that delivers literature to those readers who find it difficult to come to the reading room on their own.
