BENGALURU: The Braille Research Centre (BRC) in the city is reinventing itself to catch up with the digital age. It is slowly shifting from bulky Braille books, which are difficult to carry around and maintain over time, to computer-based audio classes which are easier and more portable.
The aim — to increase enrolments of visually impaired persons in colleges as well as in government services, including top posts in the administration.
The institute, which is affiliated to Bangalore University, is the only collegiate support system in the city for visually impaired persons.
To make classroom learning more effective for regular and distance learning students, the institute has devised audio modules. Planning is under way and recording will be done soon.
As one enters the institute, located on the Central College premises at Bengaluru Central University, on one side is a shelf of Braille books, a sort of reference library.
The other side has freshly procured books for Karnataka Administrative Services and other competitive examinations. “We will be reading out the books and recording them. We provide the recordings free of cost to visually impaired individuals who would like to avail of these services,” said Arunalatha, director of BRC.
Both students and non-students can use the facility. They can take home recordings of their requirements on a pen drive. The centre has reading material required for competitive exams like Karnataka Administrative Service, First Division Assistant and Second Division Assistant. The focus, initially, will be on creating audio versions of study books for banking and railway exams, and then KAS, said Arunalatha.
The centre is also looking at updating the software to effectively scan textbooks which can later be printed as Braille or used as reading texts. Not just students, every visually impaired person can access these resources for free, she added.
Teachers from all colleges are being approached to prepare audio classes. At present, the centre has produced audio classes for BA second-year History and English courses.
While humanities courses seem to be the preferred choice of visually challenged students, a small fraction also opts for Commerce and Science. The overall number of visually impaired students in collegiate education seems to be on the rise and the change towards technology-based assistance is likely to boost enrolments and performance. “Even science diagrams which could not be accommodated in text scanning, can be explained in audio lessons,” said Arunalatha.
In 2018, BU had 162 visually impaired students in UG and PG courses, an increase from 154 in 2017, and 143 in 2016.