Inclusive book about Ukrainian minstrels, KOBZARs – itinerant Ukrainian bard (often blind) who sang to their own accompaniment played on multi-stringed bandura or kobza.
This book was developed by Gwara Media and Organic graphic design studio as a universal product for people with blindness, poor sight and average people as well.
Design of the book was developed following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Universal Design Guidelines. It tells about this unique layer of Ukrainian history and culture in a way that is accessible and interesting for people of different age and ability to see.
We used all available technology to create this book, which unites a minimalist and clear design with Braille font to introduce texts and illustrations to all readers. Thus, by interacting with culture, media, and technology, we have modernized and animated the cultural stratum, making it more accessible to readers, despite the difficulties of sight.
Our work included much experimentation and change of design concept many times in a process of discussing it with all stakeholders and experts to include the needs of all possible consumers. These iterations allowed us to create unique concept of book which included:
– regular text that is in font size 20 pt – which is a comfortable font size for children and people with sight disabilities to read;
– Braille text, that is exactly the same length as the regular text on each page, despite the fact that it occupies much more space;
– simple illustrations that have an optimal amount of details to be accurate and in the same time comprehensible for people with different sight conditions;
– tactile versions of illustrations, that had to be further simplified to be recreated using available technology.
Yellow was the only color used in design, being one of few colors that are recommended for print materials for people with visual impairment. It also symbolizes the brightness and positivity that the book tries to convey to its readers.
Another challenge was to layout text in a way that there would be no word wraps, as they also make it harder for children and people with sight disabilities to read.
The book "Ukrainian Minstrels" was created in the framework of the international project in cooperation with the International Education Center (Dortmund, Germany). The project was implemented with the financial support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany.
Book presentation was conducted in Chernobyl Historical Workshop Center with the attendance of German Honorary Consul, support of local and national media.
Project involved various stakeholders:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany
International Education Center (Dortmund, Germany)
Organic Graphic Design
Gwara Media
Rehabilitation center for youth with disabilities "Right of Choice"
Kharkiv Kobzar Tsekh (culture heritage center, preserving and promoting culture tradition)
Nazar Bozhinskiy
Volodymyr Noskov, journalist
Kostya Cheremsky.
