Tuesday, November 18, 2014

DU’s blind spot finally sees light

Taken from Daily Pioneer.
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.

Source: Daily Pioneer.

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