Touch to See: Oscar and the Bird
Supporting Living Paintings to bring books and physics to a wider audience.
Published: 6 March 2025
The Ogden Trust has been working with Living Paintings to support new books and resources in their Touch to See library, helping to make physics topics accessible to young children who are living with blindness or visual impairment. Grants from the Trust have allowed two new Touch to See books to be produced: Look up! by Nathan Bryon and more recently, Oscar and the Bird by Geoff Waring.
In addition to the grant which enabled Oscar and the Bird to be published as a Touch to See book, the Trust has produced a new science resource that will also be added to the Living Paintings library to encourage hands-on science investigations alongside the book. The new Science Talk resource has been designed to support learning for children with visual impairments and challenges young leaners (EYFS) to explore static electricity with a balloon. Copies of the resource are available on our website but will also be provided when a copy of the book is loaned out by the Living Paintings library.
Touch to See books are designed to encourage interaction between blind and visually impaired children and the sighted people around them, breaking down the barriers that create social exclusion; they include raised, tactile images which are brought to life by engaging, immersive audio recordings that tell the stories of the pictures being explored.
CBBC presenter and civil engineer, Ayo Sokale will be lending her voice to the audio guide for Oscar and the Bird: “I love the accessibility Living Paintings will provide for blind children in the UK, so this is why I am happy to lend my voice and time!”
“In the past couple of years, we have seen a huge growth in demand for our accessible Touch to See books and resources, and we know Oscar and the Bird is going to be so valuable to our library members,” says Camilla Oldland OBE, Chief Executive of Living Paintings.
“Picture books are so much more than stories. They help young minds understand the world around them, and we’re thrilled to have this title all about electricity in our collection thanks to the kind support of The Ogden Trust. We know our members, their families and schools are going to love it.”
There are more primary classroom resources on the topic of electricity available in the resources section of our website.
Look Up!
The adaption of Look Up! has been available in the Living Paintings library since the end of 2023 and copies of the book have already been loaned out more than 120 times.
“We have been learning about the incredible Mae Jemison at home. To our delight, Living Paintings sent us a book featuring her! The images are stunning and the story is a joy to read. It’s quickly become a favourite for our bedtime moments.”
Look Up! is one of the books featured in our partnership Science Talk CPD for the early years, which supports communication and language through understanding the world. As part of our work with Living Paintings, this Science Talk activity is also now freely available on our website. The activity features constellations cards which can be used to create tactile illustrations of the stars.
“The Touch to See books produced by Living Paintings are fantastic,” says Clare Harvey, Chief Executive of The Ogden Trust. “I am delighted that we have been able to support the production of these two books which are helping to bring the stories, and the physics, to a wider audience.”
Living Paintings is the national charity on a mission to ensure every blind child in the UK has equal access to the visual world of pictures, books and learning. From adapting bestselling picture books into accessible, tactile-audio formats for blind children to developing resources designed to inspire, educate and entertain – their free postal library gives thousands of blind children and young people the world at their fingertips.
For more information, visit livingpaintings.org or check out their Instagram @livingpaintingscharity.