We join the world in remembering the incredible Dolly Parton and the impact she had on children`s literacy - including providing free braille and audiobooks for kids who are blind and low-vision. 🦋 📚 #BlindNewWorld

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#Repost @TodayShow and @ReadWithJenna: The Braille Tales program, a partnership between Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (@ImaginationLibrary) and American Printing House (@AmericanPrintingHouse), launched in 2011. Starting the next year, it has sent one braille book every other month to children under 6 in the U.S. who are blind or have low vision.

Some 5,600 families have participated in the program, and over 110,000 books have been mailed out, an APH spokesperson tells TODAY.com.

This access can be especially life-changing for these families, as braille books for young children often aren’t stocked in libraries or book stores, Jessica Caromile says.

“We’re stuck reading the same books over and over. (Or) we’re stuck paying extra because you have to pay someone to do the brailing. I call it the disability tax,” she adds.

Some 10 years later, she’s held on to a few of the books her son Greyson received from Aunt Dolly (Parton). “Not Your Typical Dragon,” a story about a young dragon who struggled because his talents were different from the others, was one of his favorites.

The rest, Caromile says, she donated to other families with children with visual disabilities.

Greyson now gets braille books through school, but looking back on those early years, his mom says those mailed to her family for free built the foundation for skills she’s eager for him to hone.

“I don’t like the term special needs because none of my son’s needs are special,” she says. “He needs every other thing that a kid needs: food, water, shelter, love, access.”

And she believes Parton understood that, too.

“(Greyson) is never thought of, considered or included. So just the fact that we got (the books) is something that has stuck with me. She really genuinely cared about everyone,” Caromile says.

“I’ll always be grateful for her including us in a world where we are often left out.”

📸/🎥: Jessie.Bean/FB ...

Kindness, like a boomerang, always returns. Trust the process. 🪃 #BlindNewWorld

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#Repost @VictoriaClaireSculpture: "Coming back around

Here is the first of two creations from my new touchwood studio, this is a boomerang with raised dots for tactile engagement, it has braille written in black dots, it says trust the process, Carved from oak.

This is one of the most powerful ways I support myself, through creativity, I trust the process, even though the pain is deep, the need for connection is so prevalent and healing seems to take so long.

This piece of work represents returning to self, not going back to the beginning but returning to a new space where growth and healing have taken place.

Like the boomerang once it is thrown it will do It’s loop, it’s journey but often lands in a slightly different spot from Where It was thrown. This represents my healing journey beautifully, I return to self but the journey has changed where I land just slightly, just enough to honour myself, my needs and my wants.

I continue on this healing journey, I journal every day, I do holistic well-being therapy and psychotherapy, I write and play my music, I sculpt and create ART with meaning and write poetry.

I know this journey is long and sometimes incredibly painful, I often reflect on the LOVE that I have lost, but I have to remind myself that the LOVE that ive gained by not abandoning myself anymore and by choosing myself I slowly found LOVE for my own self-worth XX"

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Image: A piece by artist Dr. Victoria Claire - a boomerang carved from oak wood with red and white tactile marks on the end and black braille on its body that reads, "Trust the process."

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#ArtIsForEveryone #Sculpture #SculptureArt #AccessibleArt #TactileArt #DisabledArtist #BlindArtist #DisabilityPride #DisabilityAwareness #DisabilityAcceptance #DisabilityIsNotInability #DisabilityNotInability #blind #blindness #VisuallyImpaired #VisualImpairment #LowVision #VisionLoss #SightLoss #LegallyBlind ...

Representation in play is magical! ✨ #BlindNewWorld

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#Repost @AFB1921: "The Moonspell Magic by Monster High Claire de Luna doll is now available! Claire de Luna is a clairvoyant witch who reads the constellations as easily as her fingers read braille.

We`re proud to have collaborated with the @MonsterHigh team to help shape a thoughtful, respectful approach to representing blindness and low vision in the Claire de Luna character, from her story and design to packaging that features braille.

Representation in mainstream toys matters, and we`re excited to see more characters with disabilities become part of imaginative play."

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Image: A Claire de Luna doll set against a mystical purple backdrop. She`s standing next to a boiling cauldron, holding a crystal ball in one hand and a light purple mobility cane in the other. She`s wearing a sparkly night-sky-themed wrap over a black crop top and a tarot-card-printed skirt plus a wide-brim witch hat. One of her eyes, a prosthetic, glimmers with multiple colors.

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#MonsterHigh #Representation #RepresentationMatters #DisabilityRepresentation #inclusion #DisabilityInclusion #DisabilityIsNotInability #DisabilityNotInability #DisabilityAwareness #DisabilityAcceptance #WhiteCane #blind #blindness #VisuallyImpaired #VisualImpairment #LowVision #VisionLoss #LegallyBlind #MondayMood #MondayMotivation ...

We knew guide dogs were multi-talented, but we didn`t realize they were also so... multi-dimensional. 🌀 #BlindNewWorld

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#Repost @TBToro: "For the dog days of summer 🐶 ... ⛅️"

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Image: A single panel black-and-white ink cartoon by cartoonist Tom Toro features a guide dog in harness staring open-mouthed into what appears to be another dimension - dinosaurs, comets, large ships, swirling planets, the progress of evolution, and more. The caption reads, "All-seeing eye dog."

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#Dogs #Dogstagram #DogsOfInstagram #DogsWithJobs #GuideDog #GuideDogsOfInsta #blind #blindness #VisuallyImpaired #VisualImpairment #LowVision #VisionLoss #SightLoss #LegallyBlind #MidweekMood ...

And now, some Monday motivation. #BlindNewWorld

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#Repost @BrailleForward: "It’s good to listen to children: work hard, breathe, and smile!"

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Image: An orange wall at @BostonChildrensMuseum’s adorned with braille wishes on notecards decorated by children who participated in a community braille mural. Each note card features a brailled word and drawing by a child. Some of the brailled words include kindness, work hard, smile, love, peace, and breath.

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#MondayMotivation #MondayMood #braille #BrailleLiteracy #inclusion #DisabilityInclusion #DisabilityAwareness #DisabilityAcceptance #blind #blindness #VisuallyImpaired #VisualImpairment #LowVision #VisionLoss #SightLoss #LegallyBlind ...

Access and inclusion make all the difference. Be an ally! #BlindNewWorld

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#Repost @Story.Of.The.Mind: "Don`t teach disabled people to fit in better. Teach society how to include us."

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Image: Black text highlighted by hearts and colorful emphasis marks reads, "Stop teaching disabled people how to fit in. Start teaching society how to include us."

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#TheMoreYouKnow #BeAnAlly #AbleismIsTrash #inclusion #DisabilityInclusion #DisabilityPride #DisabilityAcceptance #DisabilityAwareness #DisabilityIsNotInability #DisabilityNotInability #blind #blindness #VisuallyImpaired #VisualImpairment #LowVision #VisionLoss #SightLoss #LegallyBlind #MidweekMood #MidweekMotivation ...