Bharathi lions talking library at the Nirmala College for Women
in the city is a treasure trove not just for visually-challenged school
and college students but also for researchers and professionals.
M Zeeyawolhak, a blind student who completed his M Phil in Tamil literature recently, gets his class notes and books recorded at the talking library so that he could listen to them later. There are many like him who visits the 'talking library' to get their lessons recorded.
More than 50 visually-challenged people visit the 'talking library' every week to get the recorded cassettes or get their notes recorded. There is a librarian who records it for them or gets someone else to record it for them. "I make a point to record all my notes and books," says AS Shobana, a visually-challenged student who is doing her first year MA History. Shobana who dreams of entering the civil service diligently records her notes and later listens to them.
The library, which opened five years ago, has around 1,300 cassettes on school and college subjects.
Antony Irudaya Rani, in charge of the 'talking library' for the last 5 years, says several students make use of the facility. "School students to college students and even working professionals visit the library. They ask our help in recording. We either recite the contents or depute volunteers for the task," she said.
Recently, the library began training visually-challenged students to use a software, JAWS. The students can type the contents using the software, which will spell out each alphabet while typing. Later, using the arrow keys in the computer they can read the material. Institutes including the Avinashilingam University offer similar facilities for their visually challenged students.
With advent of many technological tools to help the visually-challenged students, experts say, learning of Braille is slowly becoming a passe. Instead of their notes using the Braille script, a good number of students prefer to get it recorded that too on cassettes so that they can later rewind a particular portion. "But, without learning Braille, the students will not be able to understand spellings and the language which will be crucial in their career later," points out R Srinivasan, a retired English professor and convenor of the association for the rights of the visually challenged (ARVIC).
M Zeeyawolhak, a blind student who completed his M Phil in Tamil literature recently, gets his class notes and books recorded at the talking library so that he could listen to them later. There are many like him who visits the 'talking library' to get their lessons recorded.
More than 50 visually-challenged people visit the 'talking library' every week to get the recorded cassettes or get their notes recorded. There is a librarian who records it for them or gets someone else to record it for them. "I make a point to record all my notes and books," says AS Shobana, a visually-challenged student who is doing her first year MA History. Shobana who dreams of entering the civil service diligently records her notes and later listens to them.
The library, which opened five years ago, has around 1,300 cassettes on school and college subjects.
Antony Irudaya Rani, in charge of the 'talking library' for the last 5 years, says several students make use of the facility. "School students to college students and even working professionals visit the library. They ask our help in recording. We either recite the contents or depute volunteers for the task," she said.
Recently, the library began training visually-challenged students to use a software, JAWS. The students can type the contents using the software, which will spell out each alphabet while typing. Later, using the arrow keys in the computer they can read the material. Institutes including the Avinashilingam University offer similar facilities for their visually challenged students.
With advent of many technological tools to help the visually-challenged students, experts say, learning of Braille is slowly becoming a passe. Instead of their notes using the Braille script, a good number of students prefer to get it recorded that too on cassettes so that they can later rewind a particular portion. "But, without learning Braille, the students will not be able to understand spellings and the language which will be crucial in their career later," points out R Srinivasan, a retired English professor and convenor of the association for the rights of the visually challenged (ARVIC).
Source : TOI , 23rd April 2013
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