Bringing the Coronation to Life for Blind and Visually Impaired Children
13th March 2023
As the country comes together, no blind child should feel excluded
The coronation of King Charles III promises to be a visual spectacle that will bring the country together in celebration. But with rich imagery so ingrained in the event, over 26,000 blind and visually impaired children and young people living in the UK risk feeling excluded.
Living Paintings are tackling this with an incredibly special project; one that will bring the coronation to life for of blind and visually impaired children across the nation.
We’re giving away thousands of free, sensory coronation gifts that will give blind children and young people the opportunity to experience the pageantry and history through touch and sound.
‘Coronation: The Sensory Experience for Blind Children’
Our free gifts can be enjoyed at home or at school and will arrive with blind children and young people across the UK in the weeks leading up to the big day on 6th May.
Beautifully packaged, each free gift will contain raised, tactile resources designed just for them, accompanied by audio descriptions will be available to stream or download to guide little fingers over the raised images and bursting with entertaining, engaging and educational facts to bring the coronation to life in an accessible, fun and exciting way.
Each free gift will include:
The St Edward’s Crown
A feely picture of the St Edward’s Crown that will be a focus of the coronation, placed on the head of the new King by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Steeped in history, the crown was last used by our late Queen during her coronation in 1952. It was created for King Charles II in 1661 and on May 6th will be the focus of the ceremony that will see King Charles III officially ascend the throne.
The Profile Image of King Charles III
A tactile version of the portrait of King Charles that will become the iconic image of his reign. For centuries the images of monarchs have been stamped onto coins, and in 1840 Queen Victoria’s profile was first printed on the first adhesive stamp. By British artist, Martin Jennings, the new portrait of King Charles III is the first where the monarch is not wearing a crown.
The Flower Emblems for the Nations of the United Kingdom
When King Charles is crowned, he will officially begin his reign over the four nations of the United Kingdom. In celebration of this, we have included raised, feely pictures of the floral emblems of these nations; England’s rose, Wales’ daffodil, Scotland’s thistle, and Northern Ireland’s shamrock.
To make sure our free gifts can be enjoyed by children of all ages, we are creating three separate versions of our audio guides.
A gift for all blind and visually impaired children
Every single member of Living Paintings postal library for blind children will receive our special free coronation gift and it is theirs to keep forever. But we know that only a small fraction of blind and visually impaired children and young people in the UK are benefitting from our service. We want to make sure that every blind child can feel included in this momentous occasion – regardless of whether they are a member of our library or not.
Applications to receive our free coronation gift is open to all families, schools or people supporting blind or visually impaired children. Registration is open now and takes just a couple of minutes to complete. But hurry, you only have until the end of April to sign up!
You can help a blind or visually impaired child in your life feel included in the celebrations by visiting our coronation hub at livingpaintings.org/coronation
