Braille Library Launched to Support Visually Impaired Readers in Azerbaijan

Jerusalem, 25 January, 2026 (TPS-IL) -- Baku (AZERTAC) – British Petroleum (BP) announced the successful completion of a social initiative aimed at promoting an inclusive society in Azerbaijan, developing inclusive education, and strengthening the social integration of people with visual impairments on Sunday.

According to BP, the main goal of the project was to create a modern library consisting of samples of Azerbaijani and foreign literature published in Braille in order to meet the reading needs of more than 40,000 visually impaired people across the country, including approximately 9,000 children.

This initiative is very important in terms of not only preparing examples of modern literature in Azerbaijani and delivering them to readers through the country’s central libraries, but also creating a valuable resource base that supports the formation of sustainable reading habits in Braille.

The project involves the publication of 19 selected works from Azerbaijani and world literature in Braille. Each book has been carefully selected taking into account the reading interests and needs of visually impaired people across the country. The authors of the selected works include Isa Muganna, Anar, Elchin, Sabir Ahmadli, Movlud Suleymanli, Chingiz Huseynov, Kobo Abe, Heinrich Heine, Oscar Wilde, Ali Karim, Vagif Samadoglu and many other prominent writers and poets.

“We are proud to make knowledge, culture and literature more accessible to thousands of visually impaired people in Azerbaijan. Inclusivity and equal opportunities are at the core of our social investment strategy, and this project is another example of our commitment to creating positive change in communities,” BP Vice President for the Caspian Region Bakhtiyar Aslanbeyli said an event marking the launch of the books.

“By making literature more accessible by publishing it in Braille, we wanted to support equal participation of everyone in both the cultural and educational life of the country and contribute to the development of a sustainable reading culture in our native language. We believe that this project is not only beneficial for a large vulnerable group of our society, but also an important social initiative in terms of spreading valuable experience,” said Aslanbeyli.

The total cost of the project was 133,000 manats ($78,000). A total of 1,900 books were published in 19 titles, 100 copies each.