CU’s vision for the blind: Braille books,audio library

The university,in collaboration with the West Bengal Chapter of National Association for the Blind (NAB),has turned 2,000 titles from the university library into Braille. These titles,the university authorities say,are text books and reference books for post-graduate courses of the university,along with some classical texts.

The university has also set up Braille Audio Digital Library,the first of its kind by any university in the state,at its central library.

According to the university librarian,Soumitra Sarkar,the audio library,which is aided by a software Daisy,will enable users to listen to the books without any guidance. At present,the setup can accommodate about 20 students,said Sarkar. The university has set up a sound-proof studio to record books that are not available in audio format.

“We have started with the text books of the post-graduate courses and some classical texts like Discovery of India,Oliver Twist etc. We plan to increase this and we are looking for more funds,” said Suranjan Das,Vice- Chancellor of the University of Calcutta.

The V-C recently wrote a letter to the University Grants Commission seeking more financial support to develop the centre. According to the V-C,the university plans to boost its facility for blind students not only its own but also from other educational institutes.

According to the librarian of the university,a good number of visually-challenged students regularly access the university’s library and this new development will open floodgates of knowledge for these students. The facility was opened up for visually-challenged students last week.

Kanchan Gaba,the representative of the West Bengal Chapter of the NAB,said plans are afoot to have two Braille printers that would help easy conversion of the books into Braille for the benefit of blind students.