VELLORE: A group of students at the Home and School for the Blind run by the Guild of Service has received an electronic magnifier from the State government.
They received the portable electronic video magnifier from the district differently-abled welfare office free of cost recently. With this device, they can read textbooks better.
The magnifier resembles a camera with 3.5-inch LCD display with can increase the size of the text four-fold. It has four LED lights to provide lighting. The background of the display screen could be changed to various colours to suit the requirements of the user such as black text on white background, white on black, yellow on black, yellow on blue, blue on yellow and blue on white.
The magnifier has a rechargeable battery, which could be used for about two hours with one full charge.
Twelve-year-old Srinivasan, an inmate of the Home and School for the Blind, said he was able to read books only by placing them close to his eyes, that was a strain.
“It used to take almost half-an-hour to read four lines. With the magnifier I am able to read them in five minutes like a normal person,” he said with a smile.
Ten-year old Kishore Kumar of Ponnai, who studied up to fifth standard in a regular school and was admitted to the School for the Blind this year, expressed happiness that he would be able to do better in his studies with the help of the magnifier.
All students in the school listen to the audio format of the textbooks in addition to learning through Braille text. Now they get the joy of reading by themselves using the magnifier.
District Differently-abled Welfare Officer Charles Prabhakaran said, “The students with such poor vision were given a plain magnifying glass nearly seven years back, to cope with reading textbooks. With the help of the magnifier (costs around `10,500) that is being distributed for the first time by the State government, students could read books without difficulty, he added.
While the State government had allocated 147 such magnifiers to be distributed to students across the State, Vellore received 30 units, which were distributed to 13 students in Vellore city and 17 others studying in various government regular schools.
Students with poor vision are normally identified by parents and family physicians. In government schools, the disability is identified by special educators appointed by Sarva Siksha Abiyan scheme.