Country's first Multilingual Braille Library Project for Visually Handicapped
to be launched in city
/India PRwire/ - Country’s first Multilingual Braille Library Project for
Visually Handicapped consisting two Braille Libraries sponsored by a Rotary
Matching Grant Project implemented by Rotary Club of Pune Westend, in
Association with Rotary Club of Eau Gallie, Florida, USA, and a matching grant
from Rotary Foundation and developed by city based companies Modular Infotech
Private Limited and Automatic Control Equipments Will soon be launched in the
city
The Braille Library for use by visually challenged persons, and having a number
of novel features will be launched at the hands of noted social activist Anil
Awachat at the SM Joshi Hall on on TuesdayTwo city based institutions - Niwant
Andh Mukta Vikasalaya, Viman Nagar, Pune, and Nirmalya Trust Bhandarkar Road,
Pune - will house these libraries.
Speaking to reporters MR. Sachin Kadam, President of the Rotary Club Pune
Westend The objectives of the project are - To set up reading libraries for the
visually challenged students with a view to help provide them access to maximum
reading material both for academic as well as other literary reading, ensuring
that the libraries are located in such a way that maximum students are
benefited by the same.
The Libraries use the technology of Microcomputer based Electronic Braille
Readers with software for reading Indian Languages and English Braille. This
technology has been developed by Modular Infotech and manufactured by ACE both
Pune companies, incorporating very user-friendly features for the visually
handicapped users and an efficient storage system for Braille Books which saves
up to 98 % space, and gives a virtually unlimited life for the books, he added
Mr Raghunandan Joshi, the Joint Managing Director of Modular Infotech Private
Limited said that the Braille Libraries, would be the first of their kind in
India, and contain the following equipment in each library. Which includes -
Five numbers of Microcomputer based electronic Braille Readers, from Automatic
Control Equipments, Pune, one IBM compatible PC, Braille Library administrating
software and Shree-Lipi Braille Software for automatic translation of books in
Indian languages and English into Braille, from Modular Infotech, Pune, one
Braille Embosser- for making hard-copies of books, High Speed Document Scanner
with ADF, and Un-Interrupted Power Supply, for the equipment. He further said
that the Braille embossers have been imported from Enabling Technologies USA
and Index Braille Sweden, and the SARA scanner from Freedom Scientific USA.
The project initiated by the company with active participation of Rotary Club
Pune Westend, will have salient features of the Braille Library that features
books in all Indian languages and English can be converted to Braille from
their soft copies.
After the conversion to Braille, these books are indexed and are stored in
pen-drive storage devices in a compact manner. A normal 2 GB pen-drive can
store upto 2000 or more books. A Library administration specially designed for
the Braille Library, allows the pen-drives to be loaded with the books and
their index lists. From these, required books can be stored for reading into
the BRAILLE-MITRA Reader. Thus each Reader can work independently without the
need of a PC.
Mr. Joshi further added d that the key-unit of the Braille Library - BRAILLE
MITRA is a Refreshable Braille Reader for visually handicapped and sightless
people for reading in English and all 11 Indian Languages in Braille. It uses a
new technology to have 'soft Braille books' which consists of Braille
characters formed in a row, with each character having six dots made by smooth
plastic pins, which are raised selectively, by electro-mechanical means to make
a line of Braille characters.
The 'feel' of this line, to the sightless person's index fingers is exactly
same as that of 'feeling' an embossed Braille line in a Braille book. This
Braille line, is driven by a micro-computer, which provides many additional
features to the reader. BRAILLE-MITRA has the great advantage that after the
person 'reads' a line, the next line appears automatically on the same place,
and the person can easily read the display word-by-word and line-by-line.
BRAILLE-MITRA can keep showing any number of books 'loaded' in its
micro-computer's memory.
The sightless person can virtually get an unlimited number of books for Braille
reading on BRAILLE-MITRA, provided of course these books are available in
Braille in soft form, as a computer file. BRAILLE-MITRA is silent, and has a
variety of navigation features for the reader to make Braille reading a truly
wonderful experience.
Mr. Pradeep Newalkar, Ex-President of the Rotary Club Pune Westend, in whose
tenure the project was initiated, said that two institutions that have been
chosen by the Rotary Club for setting up the Braille libraries - Niwant Andh
Mukta Vikasalaya, Viman Nagar, Pune, and Nirmalya Trust Bhandarkar Road, Pune -
will make the maximum utilization of these resource, taking into account
requirements of their Locations at places in Pune where most visually
challenged students are benefited.
Both Institutions being registered trusts with the Charity Commissioner, and
having their track record over the past several years in the field of working
for the visually handicapped. Their credentials of being highly dedicated in
their work for the visually impaired has been verified by the Rotary Club Pune
Westend..
Mr Shashank Tilak, Project Coordinator of the Rotary Club of Pune Westend said
that the reading of any text material by sightless and very low-vision persons
all over the world is achieved through the Braille script, which is a system of
raised dots on a paper or a surface. This system of writing and reading being
used by all blind people, was invented over 170 years ago (1834) in France by
Louis Braille.
Today Braille books and readers are very essential for the education of the
blind, and Rotary Club of Pune Westend has realized this need of the society,
and taken efforts to contact its counterparts in USA and also the Rotary
Foundation, to fund this project in full. The total value of the project being
Rs 16.8 Lacs, he added.
With their combined help, and technology developed by Modular Infotech, -
Rotary Club's implementation Partners for this project, this unique concept has
become a reality, which will go a long way in promoting literacy for the
visually handicapped students in Pune.
Dr Mehernosh Cooper - Chairman of Modular Infotech said that this project will
be a path-making model project for the benefit of visually handicapped, and can
be replicated in each district of India. He further said that a lot needs to be
done in the area of education for the blind in India - estimated to be 13
million, of which only a small percentage get education, and that too in their
local languages, where establishing Indian languages Braille libraries will be
of great help to the students.
Mrs. Meena Joshi, Technical Director - Modular Infotech said that content
creation for the Braille Libraries will be the focal activity after the
libraries are created, and appealed that All publishers of Indian languages
books, and Balbharati, have now an opportunity to make their books available to
the blind, in a big way, and help open the gates of knowledge to them and make
a significant contribution. This will rapidly increase the literacy rate of
blind persons and make different books useful for secondary, higher and
professional education easily available to them. This will be a great service
to the society
Source: Press release distribution via India PRwire
For further information contact : Shashank Tilak – 94204 83405 - Rotary Club
Pune Westend / Mr Raghunandan Joshi - 93701 31502 - Modular Infotech
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