“Talking Books” for all of whom cannot read standard print due to blindness, visual impairment, dyslexia, or other learning disabilities.
It gave us immense
pleasure when we implemented a CSR project to record “Talking
Books” in my previous organisation.
Talking Books are
recorded materials—most often books —in audio formats provided to
people who are visually impaired, or otherwise unable to read or use
standard printed materials.
We implemented the
project in our offices in Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai by creating
recording studios. We recorded many titles, mostly for educational
purposes, on CDs, and later on pen drives and passed on to our
partner NGOs for onward distribution to the visually challenged.
Thanks to
Information technology, Talking Books have now become the preferred
method of learning for visually challenged. In our field survey
we found them spending as many as 10 hours in a day listening to
Talking Books. That's a lot of time.
We recorded books in
MP3 format also upgraded to DAISY
format. The DAISY format has advanced features in addition to those
of a traditional audio book. Users can search, place bookmarks,
precisely navigate line by line, and regulate the speaking speed
without distortion.
The project was very
popular with employee volunteers. They recorded books in English and
regional languages. They helped themselves by scheduling the use of
the studios for recording. The IT infra team also rallied and
supported.
The next logical
step in this project would be to put the recorded Talking Books on
cloud for ease of access. This is the only way it can reach far
corners in India.
In India the Talking
Book Project was initiated by NAB (India) in 1963 with the help of
United States Government. Now it does recording directly in digital
format and has thousands of titles.
The Origin
In 1932, the
American Foundation for
the Blind (AFB) received a grant from the Carnegie Foundation to
research methods of recording the spoken word as a means of
delivering printed material to those with vision loss. The result of
these efforts was the Talking Book project. Talking Books radically
altered the lives of many blind individuals for whom literature and
written information were previously inaccessible.
The basic idea was
not new. When Thomas Edison applied for a patent for his Tin-Foil
Phonograph in 1877, one of the ten potential uses he listed for his
invention was "phonograph books, which will speak to blind
people without effort on their part." Interestingly, this item
was second in his list of ten; "reproduction of music" was
fourth.
Leading examples from USA and UK
Founded in 1948,
Learning Ally, is a
non-profit volunteer organization operating nationwide in the United
States, serves more than 300,000 K-12, college and graduate students,
veterans and lifelong learners – all of whom cannot read standard
print due to blindness, visual impairment, dyslexia, or other
learning disabilities. It has a collection of more than 80,000
human-narrated textbooks and literature titles can be downloaded on
mainstream smartphones and tablets.
Founded in 2002,
Bookshare®
is an online library of computer-read audiobooks in accessible
formats for people with print disabilities. It is the world's largest
accessible online library for people with print disabilities with
573,651 titles.
In UK Calibre
Audio Library, Listening
Books, and The
Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) provide similar
services.
Africa
But the most
interesting example, I came across was that of Literacy
Bridge.
Literacy Bridge
saves lives and improves the livelihoods of impoverished families
through comprehensive programs that provide on-demand access to
locally relevant knowledge. At the heart of the programs is the
Talking Book – an innovative low-cost audio computer designed for
the learning needs of illiterate populations living in the poorest
areas in the world.
Literacy Bridge, an
NGO working in Ghana, makes “Talking Books” available to
over 200,000 people living in extreme poverty in Northern Ghana.
Through songs, dramas, and interviews, the books provide education on
health and agriculture to reduce material and child mortality, hunger
and chronic malnutrition and help people to reconsider gender
roles.
Simple and
actionable instructional messages that are repeatable and can be
played when needed enable people to learn and adopt new practices to
fight poverty and disease.
This initiative is
linked to goal of Education (no 4) of Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) of United Nations.