Any comments from friends studying at DU? http://www.dailypioneer.com/city/dus-blind-spot-finally-sees-light.html While providing the disabled with a friendly studying atmosphere, Delhi University has installed new technology in all colleges where visually impaired students can scan any book of their choice and the preinstalled software will transcribe text to speech. This technology can help visually impaired students keep up with other students academically and also imbibe more knowledge in the process.
This initiative is a part of a project launched early this year by the Vice Chancellor of the university called 'Inclusive Print Access Project'. According to Dr Anil Aneja, OSD Equal Opportunity Cell (EOC), this technology will be provided to students in both English and Hindi. "The software and technology that we have brought support English and we have additionally installed software, which supports Hindi as well. Thus, students can scan the books of their choice and hear it in whichever audio format they want. Though not all Hindi fonts are compatible at the moment, students will be able to access most books," he said. This technology is being installed in the libraries of all colleges and even in the university libraries. Additionally, the visually impaired students would not have to sit separately and use this technology. "The technology will be installed in a universal manner where anyone can access it. The aim is to make the environment as inclusive as possible for the disabled," informed Aneja. The most interesting part of this technology is that disabled students of Hindi can also work on assignments with the help of the software. Aneja explained, "The students can use the technology to have their assignments written and printed as we have got special software where voice quality and reception is clear in Hindi." Currently the technology and software have been acquired by the university and the installation enquiries are on. "We are coordinating with the colleges and seeing where the technology can be installed. We are quite hopeful that by end of the week, all the software and devices will be installed in all colleges of the university," said Aneja. -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Clean India Campaign: Let us also chip in! Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
