Special talking books for the blind in Tamil Nadu

Cognizant Foundation in Chennai has been training around 50 visually impaired students from Class 10 to 12 of schools under Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan on how to use the DAISY application in smartphones over the last two months.

The initiative has been organised with the support of Karna Vidya Foundation and WORTH (Workshop for Rehabilitation of Persons With Disabilities) Trust.

The Foundation with the support of Samsung India has configured smartphones to support DAISY textbooks and 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 will be given to the blind students during study hours or on a need basis.

The DAISY (Digital Accessible Information SYstem) app allows a visually impaired 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 the ability to add any new content or delete existing content in case there is any change in the syllabus.

In short, navigating a DAISY book is easy for any blind reader and also useful for children with locomotor disabilities and dyslexia.