National Initiative for the Blind
(A joint project with Vidya
Vrikshah)
Introduction
The National Initiative for the Blind is a bold and innovative approach
to bring literacy, education, skills and services to the four million blind
of India, who live on its margins, not just in physical darkness, but in
the more crippling darkness of illiteracy and poverty.
This Initiative is based on a new, holistic, integrated approach
that proceeds from a shared vision of two institutions, a premier educational
institution, the IIT Madras, and a committed voluntary service
organization, Vidya Vrikshah, Chennai. It seeks to synergise
the power of technology with the power of community self-help
in the service of the poor and helpless. It
is held up as an example of how the country should evolve its own solutions
to solve its own problems.
The Initiative gives substance to this conceptual approach by simple, natural
and inexpensive methodologies. What could be more simple, natural and inexpensive,
than that the early training of the sense of touch and the sense of hearing
for literacy, is conducted by the mother, that first, universal teacher?
Or that the training be conducted in the mother tongue. Or that the
later process of education and final process of employment be set
in the context of use of the local language, in which most of our socio-economic
activities are conducted. The methodologies that are proposed rest on these
very strengths.
Background
IIT Madras has been involved with a project on Multilingual Computing aimed
at Education and Literacy for the underprivileged and the disabled in India.
The Software developed as part of this project has gained wide acceptance
in the country on account of its unique features as well as as its flexibility
to work with all Indian languages in a transparent manner. In 1998, Vidya
Vrikshah, a volunteer organization in Chennai began using the software
for training visually handicapped persons and teachers in schools for the
Blind. The experience gained in successfully running the training program
(offered free to all persons) crystallized as the National Initiative.
Till July 2004, more than Three Hundred and Fifty persons from all over
India had received the training. Also other NGOs in the country, notably
Matruchhaya in Bangalore had used the Software effectively to produce text
books in Braille. Encouraged by the warm response from the organizations
serving the cause of the Blind, coupled with the fact that the Multilingual
software itself won national recognition, Vidya Vrikshah and IIT Madras
together drew up the proposal for the initiative.
Methodology
Involve mothers of
visually handicapped children in the initiative by giving them basic resources
to teach the basics of Braille to the children. the Vasantha Braille cube
will be effectively used along with printed material prepared in the form
of charts.
The second step is
to provide a second level kit to the children to help them gain familiarity
with aids such as a rule, compass, abacus etc.
Once blind children have learnt the alphabet through use of the Vasantha
Cube and the Natesh Block, they will be encouraged to read real-life braille
embossed on paper. For this purpose, steps are under way in Vidya
Vrikshah to produce "Drushti", a monthly children's braille magazine with
stories (and later school lessons as well) in all the local languages,
which will be sent to them by post. (Postage is free for braille matter).
Issues of the Tamil version of Drushti are already being sent to 25 Blind
Schools since January 2004. Inability to teach braille and provide
braille reading material comes in the way of normal schools admitting blind
children.
ASHA-for-Education, an aid network of Indians in the USA, has already provided
a versatile Braille Printer to Vidya Vrikshah to produce this magazine.
With such braille material becoming available, even normal schools in all
villages will be encouraged to become inclusive schools, ready to impart
braille based education to local blind children living in villages close
by. The approach is therefore poised to open the doors to braille based
literacy and education, wide open to all blind children, in all schools
throughout the country.
Braille based education, of course, does not go far enough,
as it cannot sustain the wider real life needs of higher education and
employment. This is where the second component of the National Initiative
for the Blind, provides a complete answer viz., Computer based
Education and Training. This is accomplished through a meaningful software
package developed at IIT Madras, which has the following features :
-
It enables
easy use of computers in all Indian languages and also English. by all,
including the physically disadvantaged.
-
It provides
for voice and braille computer output in all these languages, with voice
support for screen navigation and editing, to serve the special needs of
the blind.
The
software is provided free of cost, by IIT Madras and also through Vidya
Vrikshah, which in addition, provides free training. Each trained person
or group is given a CD with the software.
The Vasantha Cube was sent to over 200 blind schools in the country for
evaluation. Their responses have been enthusiastic and Vidya Vrikshah has
been flooded with requests for supply of the cubes in large quantities,
for use, not only by blind children in these schools, but also by blind
children in neighbouring villages, through out-reach programs.
While the two components of the National Initiative described above, address
the literacy and education needs of children, a third component addresses
the special needs of the wider blind community, in terms of braille,
training and other services. Under this component, it is proposed to enlarge
the role of the blind schools which is at present limited to education
of blind children. The idea is to re-orient these institutions
to function as Special Resource Centres to provide the following
services to all the blind in the districts in which they are located :
Produce
and distribute the Braille Magazines and School Text books for children
as described earlier, free of cost, by equipping them with special Braille
Printers.
Provide
braille output services to all other blind persons in the district at a
nominal cost.
Offer
training courses for mobility, travel, and other activities of coping with
the environment.
Offer
computer-based vocational training courses like data entry, job typing,
email and browsing services, running public call offices etc.
The
National Initiative for The Blind was formally launched at a public function
on the 27th December, 2003 at Chennai. There were live presentations of
all the three component methodologies at this function in the presence
of His Excellency, the Governor of Tamil Nadu, who described them as "remarkable
and revolutionary". The Initiative for Tamil Nadu, was inaugurated by
Dr.M.Anandakrishnan, one of the most distinguished and far-seeing educationists
of the country, who is currently Chairman of the prestigious Madras Institute
of Development Studies. Dr.Anandakrishnan made a powerful plea for a national
coalition of Educational authorities and Institutions and Voluntary Services,
for massive implementation of the Initiative. Specifically he suggested
mobilizing students who formed a vast reservoir for voluntary services,
and whose high idealism and motivation could greatly add to the impact
of the implementation process.
(His Excellency, the Governor
of Tamilnadu addressing the gathering on the occasion of the inauguration
of the Initiative)
Implementation of the Initiative has been started with the
distribution of the Braille Cubes, Computers, and all the related software,
along with training, all free of cost, to all Blind Schools in Tamil Nadu.
As of 30-06-2004, eleven Blind Schools have already been covered, and the
rest are to be covered by the end of 2004. Steps are under way to form
Chapters of the Initiative in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka.
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Salient aspects of
the Initiative
Sustained through Volunteers
and self help groups all over India, morally as well as financially!
Start training in Braille
at an early age through the use of the Vasantha Braille cube followed by
a special school kit. Details are given in
a separate page.
Provide free Braille documents,
textbooks and reference material to children in Government and Private
schools. A free magazine (in Braille) has already been introduced and sent
to twenty five schools each month.
Provide Computers at schools
and train the children in the use of the Speech enhanced Multilingual software
from IIT Madras. Provide the required initial training for two teachers
from each school. Integrate this activity with the one promoted through
Sarva Siksha Abhyan.
Create centralized information
dissemination services to the visually handicapped through web services
providing text books and other reference material (for school and college
students).
Provide Braille printing
services for schools and other organizations serving the cause of the visually
handicapped.
(View a demo of this service
for preparing and proof-reading Bharati
Braille on the web)
Create a repository of general
reference information for the benefit of the visually impaired.
Involve students from schools
and colleges in the preparation of electronic texts for the Blind.
Reference
on Bharati Braille
Contact
Information
1. Smt. C.L. Ramakrishnan
Tel:
44-2441-4741
2. R. Kalyana krishnan
Tel:
44-2257-4355
Please refer to the contact
page for email information
Training Statistics
(As on July 2004)
A number of Schools have
already benefited from the training. Each school has received a free computer
as well as training for two teachers in the use of the IITM Software which
has also been provided free and installed on the system.
Schools for the Blind
1. Govt.: 11
list
2. Private: 8 list
Mainstream Schools
list
Women's Welfare Centers
list
Donors
We are grateful to the following
organizations for their help in providing computers to the different schools.
Reserve
Bank of India who donated 19 computers
Tata
Consultancy Services who donated 10 computers
Rotary
Club who donated 4 computers.
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