Surfing in the Dark Launch

Inclusive Bookshelves Championed at Vision Australia’s Children’s Book Launch

Vison Australia has launched the first book in a series championing underrepresented role models with blindness and low vision has been launched at the Melbourne Museum last week.

Surfing in the Dark, a fully integrated braille and illustrated children’s book, chronicles the story of Matt Formston, a pro blind surfer who ignored naysayers to tackles waves bigger than a five-storey building.

“The world has told me and my family you can’t, you shouldn’t, because you have a disability it’s not an option for you,” Matt said.

“But my life experience has been that I can.”

The highlight of the day designed to start a bigger conversation about diversity and inclusion in the books we read was when 11-year-old Ethan Bradley got to interview his role model Matt Formston.

Ethan has vision loss himself and stole the show by asking some tough questions to the fearless surfer, who said it was the best interview he had all year.

The book is the first of three to be released this year from Vision Australia’s ground breaking Big Visions book series.

A series written and published with the ambition to highlight positive role models and inspire inclusivity and acceptance in all Australians.

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