| THERE are 1.6 crore blind people in India with a 63% in the age group of 15 to43 years. Most of them have no access to books, not just because there are not enough books in Braille, but because there are not enough books in Indian languages which have been translated into Braille. When it comes to educational material the shortage of books in Braille is even greater. With the recent launch of Shree Lipi Braille, a high-speed. multi-lingual translation software which creates Braille books in 12 Indian languages, this could change. However, there is no official funding for such a programme and Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) and bodies like Rotary Clubs will have to support the effort. M N Cooper, CMD, Modular Infotech a 24-year old Pune-based developer of software packages for Indian languages, pointed to the challenges posed in the conversion of a book in an Indian language into Braille. The time taken and the cost of conversion of a book into Braille are both high. A book converted into Braille has about five times more pages than the original. Data entry, proof-reading and correction of Braille is time consuming and tedious' process. Our software overcomes these issues: Mr Cooper said. |
The software translates to Braille from the soft copy of any book in any formats, not just Shree Lipi. A manual translation means that a sighted person types it, a sightless person proofreads and then the corrections are incorporated. Since the Braille system involves the user pressing his/her fingers over the raised dots, the use of these books is also limited. Regular pressure applied on the dots flattens them, requiring the replacement of a book after 50 or so readings. R R Joshi pointed to their first effort, a Braille version of the Marathi translation of President's A.P.J. Kalam's autobiography, titled Agnipankh. While the Marathi version is a compact 175 pages, the Braille version comes in four volumes. Moreover, without the convener developed by Modular, it would have taken 50 days to bring out a Braille version. Using the software package-it took them just 20 minutes. Meena Joshi, technical director Modular Infotech, added that their package allows six-key typing, which is the standard way of direct data entry in Braille. 'Our software package allows typing conventionally in Indian languages and then translating the proof-corrected text into Braille and out-put in Braille." |
Modular Infotech presented a memorandum to President, Mr Kalam, requesting his help in promoting the cause of publishing regional languages in Braille. Mr Joshi said there are no books in Braille available after the Class X and the books available from KG to the Xth have no graphs or pictures. This is the next frontier for the software developer. to take on mathematical typesetting in Braille, which, Mrs Joshi estimated is still six months away. "The cost of production per book is very high, when a 175- page book converts into four volumes in 500 pages and is priced at Rs 1,000. These books in Braille, require special paper and their life is short. We have been assured by President that he will help in this endeavor," Mr Joshi said. One item in the entire process of printing in Braille that is not in shorts supply is the embosser, since most universities have had at least one donated to them. These are priced around Rs 2.5 lakh, while the Shree Lipi Braille software package is pricedat Rs 15,000. Mr Joshi suggested that these highly under-utilised, but expensive embossers could be matched with the software package, which would increase the number of books that the blind could read |
