“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.