A textbook in Braille is a boon to any visually challenged student, but not as much as a talking book.
Shakthi Kamlesh, a student of Class XII of Saint Louis Institute for The Deaf And Blind in Adyar, found this out recently after he was provided with a smartphone installed with DAISY app, which is plain terms is a special talking book.
Shakthi is among a group of visually challenged students in the city who have been provided with such smartphones by the Cognizant Foundation.
Over the last two months, with the support of Karna Vidya Foundation and WORTH (Workshop for Rehabilitation of Persons With Disabilities) Trust, Cognizant Foundation has been training around 50 visually challenged students from Class X to XII of schools under Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan on how to use the application.
Unlike conventional talking books or recorded tapes, the DAISY (Digital Accessible Information SYstem) app allows a visually challenged reader to pause the audio track of the textbook, rewind and replay the track, to bookmark a page in the audio book, search for keywords, regulate the speed of the track and magnify the text in case of low vision.
The software also has provisions to incorporate any new content or delete existing content in case there is any change in the syllabus.
Easy to navigate
In short, navigating a DAISY book is easy for any visually challenged reader.
Cognizant Foundation with the support of DAISY Consortium, a global organisation that aims to develop solutions to make knowledge and information accessible for the differently-abled, has facilitated the conversion of 48 textbooks of Classes 10 to 12 (both English and Tamil medium) of Samacheer Kalvi Board, into the DAISY suite.
Cognizant Foundation with the support of Samsung India has configured smartphones to support DAISY textbooks. The Foundation will distribute 265 customised mobile devices to 22 inclusive schools across Tamil Nadu. The smartphones will be kept in the libraries of the schools and lent to students during study hours or on a need basis.
“Besides visually-impaired students, those with locomotor disabilities and dyslexia can also make use of DAISY textbooks,” says S. Madhavan, Chief Executive Officer, Cognizant Foundation.
For the benefit of other visually-challenged students in the State, Cognizant Foundation has uploaded the content of the 48 textbooks in DAISY to bookshare.org, an online library meant for those unable to read printed books. The online library, which is also a wing of DAISY Consortium, is supported by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programmes. In India, the online library works with various organisations in the domain of disability, and offers free membership.
“This technological solution overcomes the limitations of a Braille book. For instance, with a printed book of 100 pages, its conversion into Braille format may entail 300 pages. Therefore, a Braille book is not quite handy. Next, it takes a lot of time for a Braille book to be published. In a survey that we conducted, it was found that many students don't get their Braille textbooks supplied on the first day of the academic year. They wait for a few months before they receive their textbooks. Moreover, the tactile dots of the Braille go dim very soon. It is best only up to six months. Similarly, there are many limitations in a conventional audio book. DAISY addresses these challenges to a large extent,” says Shankar Subbiah, technical consultant with bookshare.org.
The project was officially launched last Friday at the Anna Centenary Library in Kotturpuram. It was inaugurated by Md. Nasimuddin, Principal Secretary to Government, Welfare of Differently Abled Persons Department, Tamil Nadu, in the presence of S. Kannappan, State Project Director, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and Director of Public Libraries, Tamil Nadu, and Akash Saxena, Director, Samsung India Electronics Pvt Ltd. Retired IAS officials who are part of the Board of Directors of Cognizant Foundation also took part.
