Talking Books for blind students now available in Jamshedpur city college

Blind and visually impaired students in Jamshedpur have some good news to look forward to.

Karim City College, which is affiliated to the Kolhan University in Sakchi, has initiated a Talking Books concept to help visually impaired students do well in academics.

The college has bought two computers and Lex Instant Reader and Scanners worth Rs two lakh from Sparsh in Uttarakhand.

Lex is a software designed specifically for students who are blind and visually impaired to help them read any printed or electronic document more quickly and easily.

It is a highly portable camera system that gives users instant access to any physical document.

How to use Lex

To use the technology, one has to place a document under the camera, press enter on the computer keyboard. After a few seconds, the software converts the document to an audio file, which is then read aloud to the user.

Karim College, which has two blind students, will make the facility available for free to all visually impaired school and college students. The facility has been set up at the college library and will be open to public by the end of May.

Currently the system can translate only English text to English audio. It will also be initiated in Hindi.