This former lawyer writes inclusive children’s books so kids of different abilities can enjoy the same stories
Together with two women, Lee Seow Ser creates books with features such as braille, tactile pictures and dyslexia-friendly text. Their initiative, To SIR (Socially Inclusive Reads) With Love, uses books and events to foster understanding of people with disabilities and special needs.
Former lawyer Lee Seow Ser co-founded To SIR (Socially Inclusive Reads) With Love – the ground-up initiative’s inclusive children’s books comprise titles with braille, tactile pictures and dyslexia-friendly text. (Photo: Lee Seow Ser)
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Lee Seow Ser was on a sabbatical from her legal career in 2014 when she fell ill and needed surgery and treatment. It was a “major turning point” in her life, she said, one that led her to take “a leap of faith” and leave her job.
“I had a deep yearning to fulfil other life aspirations,” Lee said.
Lee had been writing as a hobby while in legal practice. She volunteered with National Parks Board (NParks), taking photos and writing about Singapore’s parks. When literary festivals came around, she would take leave to attend them – “to treat myself to a ‘mental spa’ to stimulate my creative juices”.
While on sabbatical, she had lunch with her friend Hidayah Amin, founder of Helang Books, a local independent publishing house.
Lee asked her: Why don’t bookstores in Singapore carry books for persons with vision loss?
Lee didn’t have any personal connection with visually impaired people. However, she felt that, in a world shaped by visuals, “sight is a key sensory function and being able to experience the colours of this world is a privilege”.
“As someone who likes to write, I thought it both my duty and desire to render the content of what I write in a format accessible to those who wish to read but cannot do so with their eyes,” she added.
After researching braille books, the two women decided to transcribe Hidayah’s award-winning children’s book The Mango Tree into braille. It tells the story of a girl with a connection to the title tree, touching on family relationships and an appreciation for nature.
“We spent some of our own money to engage the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped (SAVH) to transcribe the text into braille and to produce the braille book,” the 53-year-old said.
“We also took the innovative step of including a tactile cover image of the mango tree and its fruits so that blind children can feel the picture for themselves.”
After its successful launch, Tan Ai Khim, an adjunct arts and design lecturer, reached out to them on social media. In 2015, Lee, Hidayah and Tan co-founded a ground-up initiative known as To SIR (Socially Inclusive Reads) With Love, or SIR for short.
“We are three women who work from home, taking care of our respective families as caregivers and undertaking purposeful work,” Lee told CNA Women.
INCLUSIVE AND ACCESSIBLE CHILDREN’S BOOKS
SIR has produced two book series that focus on inclusivity and accessibility: Little Kids, Big Ideas and I Am Unique. The books are written by Lee, Hidayah and other writers.
These are donated to beneficiaries or public libraries, or used as educational resources in SIR’s programmes. They are also on sale at select bookstores, literary festivals and gift markets.
Little Kids, Big Ideas retells Asian stories and folktales imbued with good values. The protagonists are young children from different ethnic backgrounds, to reflect Singapore’s multiracial, multi-ethnic and multicultural society.
All the books in this series use dyslexia-friendly text alongside braille, as well as tactile pictures.
Lee said the idea is that, regardless of learning abilities, children can all read the same book, hence making these “socially inclusive reads”.
Hang Nadim And Garfish, which Tan Ai Khim illustrated, is about a quick-thinking Malay boy who saves Singapura, and Siti Wan Kembang And The Deer is about a kind Malay girl who becomes the queen of Kelantan.
Sima Guang And The Giant Jar is a tale about a brave Chinese boy saving his friend’s life. This book earned recognition as a 2017 IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People) Outstanding Book for Young People with Disabilities.
The books have been translated into Chinese and Malay in bilingual (non-tactile) editions, with the support of the Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism.
The final book in the series is in the works.
TRUE STORIES OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
The I Am Unique series is also for children but these bilingual picture books – in either English and Chinese, or English and Malay – tell stories of real persons with special needs and disabilities, from autism to Down syndrome, motor neurone disease and cerebral palsy. Two of them – on glaucoma/blindness and deafblindness – are also available in braille.
Seven books have been published so far, with the next one, on thalassaemia – an inherited blood disorder – out in late September.
Lee said that being involved in SIR has led her to make friends with many people who are blind or with disabilities. One of them is Tan Siew Ling.
Lee wrote a book about her – My Name Is Siew Ling. I am Deafblind. – which was launched in June 2026. It tells how she lost her sight as a child, then her hearing as an adult, but lives a full life despite her challenges.
“One of the events that touched me deeply was when Siew Ling and I went to East Coast Park. It was very profound to have sat there on the beach and experienced the sunrise together, despite her not being able to see the light hues nor hear the waves.
“I am heartened to be able to capture this simple yet profound scene in her book, as I thought it important for me to try and convey that experience to readers and encourage readers to have more empathy,” she added.
FROM LEGAL ADVOCATE TO COMMUNITY ADVOCATE
Lee took a further step into social entrepreneurship in 2024, studying for a six-month specialist diploma in social entrepreneurship at the Dr Richard KM Eu – SIM Social Entrepreneurship Centre.
She wanted to learn about social entrepreneurship and grow SIR using that model. She also felt it would develop her as a community advocate – the course helped her understand the social sector space and exposed her to new networks for collaboration.
“Frankly, it was not easy to go back to school at 51, stepping out of my comfort zone, and finding myself exhausted doing back-to-back assignments, like my teenage sons were doing at school,” she confessed.
In the past 10 years, Lee said she has “pivoted from being a legal advocate to a community advocate”. And she is proud of what SIR has achieved.
“We have amassed a critical volume of inclusive creative local works, produced by a Singaporean team,” she said. “We have grown beyond mere production of book titles to offer well-curated, interactive and meaningful programmes that are human-centric, purposeful, interesting and educational.”
Lee oversees these initiatives, which bring people together for meaningful conversations and foster better understanding of people with special needs and disabilities.
For example, at an event at Punggol Library in July, attendees learnt from Lee and Tan Siew Ling how the deafblind community communicates. In August, a rock-climbing-cum-book-sharing session at an indoor climbing gym featured a climb by the latter, as well as a question-and-answer and meet-and-greet session.
“This is how I hope to do my bit, to build a more caring and inclusive Singapore,” said Lee.
All this work has not gone unnoticed. In May 2025, SIR was inducted into the Kindred Spirit Circle as a Groundup Movement member by the Singapore Kindness Movement, which celebrates people or organisations that promote a kinder, more gracious society.
What keeps her going is knowing she has helped spread awareness of the special needs community. She recalled Tan Siew Ling telling her how a friend texted her after the book launch, thanking her for signing a copy for her three children, and introducing them to deafblindness.
“The friend remarked, ‘When my daughter read the part about the sunshine on your cheek and salt in the air, she said Siew Ling has a more developed sense of touch and smell than us’,” said Lee.
“Positive feedback like this moves me deeply; it encourages me to continue to create and do my best to advocate,” she added. “More importantly, it affirms that storybooks are a valuable resource to educate the young and the general public.”
CNA Women is a section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern woman. If you have women-related news, issues and ideas to share with us, email CNAWomen [at] mediacorp.com.sg.
Source: CNA/pc
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