Tactus 2007
The Eighth European Tactile Book Award
The Tactus Award aims to encourage excellence and the sharing of ideas, resources and expertise in the creation of tactile books for visually-impaired children. It is also a way of providing much-needed, high quality tactile books for distribution around the EU.
Would you like to have a go at designing and making a tactile book especially for children with little or no sight? Would you be happy to share your ideas? Books entered in the competition will be examined and discussed by sighted and visually-impaired experts from all over Europe. In this way ideas and inspiration are shared amongst participating countries.
Your book might win! The lucky winners will not only receive 600 euros and a trophy but will also see several hundred copies of their books produced and distributed (at an affordable price made possible by an EU subsidy) in English, French, Finnish, German, Dutch, Italian and Polish editions. All entries are photographed and many of these photos appear on the Tactus publicity poster each year - to inspire and inform tactile book producers all over Europe (and beyond).
The competition is open to anyone in the eight participating countries: UK, France, Italy, Belgium, Finland, Netherlands, Poland and Germany. Sixteen sighted and visually-impaired judges from these countries will meet in Dijon in November 2007 to examine all the entries and decide on the winning books. There are two categories: one for any story books for children and the other for books reflecting each country's 'cultural heritage'. To enter this category you will need to produce a tactile version of one of the chosen UK stories: The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, Jack and the Beanstalk, or The Three Wishes. (See below for more information on this.)
If you are new to tactile books you may like to visit the Tactile Book Advancement Group website at www.nctd.org.uk/tbag for ideas and guidelines on making tactile books.
Entry in the competition is free. The winning book will need to have lots of tactile interest and be robust enough to withstand enthusiastic exploration. We know how precious these books are; all entries (apart from the winners) will be returned to their owners as soon as possible after the competition. Alternatively, you may wish to donate your entry to the ClearVision tactile book library so that we can lend it to visually impaired children all over the UK.
The closing date for entries is 1st October 2007.
Entry Information
Books entered in the competition should be suitable for visually-impaired children (blind and partially-sighted) between the ages of 3 and 12. There will be two categories: the open category for any tactile story book and the 'cultural heritage' category. A prize of 600 euros will be awarded to the creator of the winning book in each category. Books entered should be entirely your own creation and therefore free of copyright (text and pictures) OR based on a traditional folktale and therefore in the public domain, OR based on an existing print book in which case you will need to show that you have the publisher's permission for a tactile version to be produced and distributed in several countries (apart from The Tale of Peter Rabbit - see below). Any format for the illustrations is acceptable, including cut and paste, sewn fabric, thermoform, embossing, etc. All books entered should be finished products rather than draft versions. Where possible, books entered should have been successfully tried out by visually-impaired children or approved by parents or professionals working in the field. If this proves difficult to arrange please ask the UK contact for advice. Entrants may send in as many books as they wish. Each book should be accom-panied by a completed entry form and a disk with the complete text in Word or .txt. Books entered in last year's Tactus competition cannot normally be entered again. Please pay particular attention to the following entry requirements:
Health and Safety: books should be completely safe for young children to use and should not contain anything which could present a danger to a young child.
Text: this should be in a legible font (at least 16pt) AND in grade 1 or grade 2 braille. If you are not able to add the braille yourself please consult the UK contact at least four weeks before the closing date.
Binding: this should allow the pages to open out flat.
Translations: the text should be easy to translate into other languages. Alphabet books and nursery rhymes, for example, are not suitable for translation.
Mass-production: illustrations should not contain any objects which cannot be obtained in quantity for mass-production.
Text books and topic books: should not be entered in this competition.
Entries which clearly do not fulfil these entry requirements (eg text books, hazardous books or books which could not be translated or reproduced) will be eliminated before judging takes place, as will books which are too fragile to withstand repeated handling.
All entries (except the winning books) will be posted back to their owners within one month of the results being announced.
The winning books will be produced for sale in the languages of the participating countries.
The organisers can take no responsibility for damage done to fragile books during the selection process and subsequent display.
UK entries should be sent to the UK contact: Marion Ripley, ClearVision, Linden Lodge School, 61 Princes Way, London SW19 6JB. Tel: 020 8789 9575, e-mail: info@clearvisionproject.org. All entries must reach ClearVision by 1st October 2007.
Entry Form
The Entry Form is available to download and print in PDF format.
 Download the Form (right click the link and choose "Save target As...")
UK Cultural Heritage stories for Typhlo and Tactus Competition 2007
This year's Tactus competition is divided into two categories. Both categories are for children aged from 3-12.
The first is an open category for any tactile story books for children in this age group.
The second category is for tactile versions of selected stories from the cultural heritage of each of the participating countries. The three chosen stories for the UK this year are The Story of the Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk and The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. A tactile book entered in the cultural heritage category should be based on one of these three stories.
Any fairly conventional re-telling of the two folk stories will be acceptable but you may find that you need to shorten the original stories quite considerably to suit this format. Proof of copyright clearance must accompany your entry if you copy the text from a published book - so it is probably easier to write your own version.
Full versions of the two folk stories can be found at the following website: www.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.html.
The publishers of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Frederick Warne and Co, have kindly given their permission for a specific shortened version of the story to be used (see below). This text should be used in its entirety and not altered in any way. Tactile illustrations can take any appropriate form.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail and Peter lived underneath the root of a very big fir-tree.
Their mother, Mrs Rabbit, was going out.
"Don't go into Mr McGregor's garden!" she said.
But naughty Peter ran to Mr McGregor's garden and squeezed under the gate.
First he ate some lettuces and french beans; then he ate some radishes.
Mr McGregor saw Peter! He chased him around the garden, calling "Stop thief!"
Poor Peter ran into a gooseberry net, and got caught by the large buttons on his jacket.
Peter wriggled away, but he left his jacket behind. Then he hid in a watering can.
Presently Peter sneezed - "Kertyshoo!" Mr McGregor was after him in no time.
Poor Peter was lost. He saw a white cat with a twitching tail, and crept past her.
Suddenly, he heard the scr-r-ritch, scratch noise of a hoe. There was Mr McGregor, and beyond him was the gate!
Peter ran as fast as he could, slipped under the gate, and was safe at last.
His mother put him to bed with a dose of camomile tea, but his sisters had bread and milk and blackberries for supper.
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