RSBC London launches Bedtime Donations

This week, around International Literacy Day, the Royal Society for Blind Children, London (RSBC) and Innocean Berlin are launching the Bedime Donations app – a unique app that creates easy access to education and mental balance for visually impaired and blind children.

Children with vision impairment face a long-standing challenge: More than a third of blind and partially sighted people in the UK struggle to make ends meet, and have little access to audiobooks. Producing audiobooks is expensive and time-consuming, while parents around the world read bedtime stories to their children every night.

The newly launched Bedtime Donations app turns these everyday moments into something powerful. When a parent reads a story aloud from the app’s library, it’s transformed into a free audiobook with the help of safe AI. The library includes hundreds of copyright-free stories across 15 categories; all sourced from Project Gutenberg.

"Every child deserves to enjoy the magic of a bed6me story - but for blind and partially sighted children, the choice of accessible audiobooks is still far too limited. The Bedtime Donations campaign is about changing that. By encouraging parents, caretakers, volunteers, and well-known voices to share their bed6me stories, we’re building a library of free, accessible books that will help children feel included, inspired and connected to the magic of storytelling,” says Julie Davis, CEO of RSBC.

Prominent UK actors, comedians and TV personalities including Jon Richardson, Ralf Little, and Mathew Baynton are among a growing list of celebrities lending their voices to the campaign. The app features two main modes: Reader and Listener. In Reader mode, parents and caretakers select from a curated library of short, child-friendly stories to read aloud. 

Once a story is recorded and meets internal quality guidelines, it becomes available through the help of safe AI in Listener mode for blind children to enjoy. Inclusivity is at the heart of the idea. Therefore, it was important that the app and website design were developed in collaboration with accessibility experts. All colours used in the app and website meet WCAG Level AAA standards, maintaining a minimum contrast ratio of 7:1 for optimal visibility. In addition, carefully chosen fonts and built-in voice recognition on both iOS and Android ensure an inclusive and user-friendly experience for everyone.