A Swedish artist who created a ‘sensual braille book’ for blind readers has presented the saucy publication for the first time to the country’s national library.
The ‘tactile’ tome features X-rated images of a woman wearing a strap-on, gay sex and group sex, and is believed to be the first written material of its kind to offer erotic stimulation to the visually impaired.
Nina Linde, 33 - who created the book in 2010, but gave an official copy to the National Library of Sweden this week - insists that despite its graphic content, it should not be labelled ‘porn’.
“The book is about sexual stimulation, I don’t think ‘porn’ is the right word,” she told The Local. “And sexual stimulation is for everyone.”
And she said that she was inspired to produce it after visiting the Braille Library in Stockholm and discovering there was “no dirty stuff at all for the visually impaired”.
She added: “Everyone needs some sexual stimulation.”
Ms Linde also revealed that she decided to enhance the sex lives of sight-impaired people after an experience in Chile while she was a student.
She said that she had helped a man to cross the road, and on telling him she was from Sweden, was amused by his reference to the Nordic liberal approach to sex.
“This realisation, that he had these thoughts even though he was blind, made me curious about how blind people’s sexuality is being discussed in society,” she told the website.
Håkan Thomsson, president of Sweden's National Federation of the Visually Impaired, told Sweden's Metro newspaper that he believed the books were a positive step.
"I think that some imagine that we have no sexuality, which is not true,” he said. “Visually impaired people are just as sexual as any other.”
