Audio textbooks replace braille

Visually-impaired students of SSLC need not wait any longer for braille textbooks, which have been out of print for as long as 10 years now.

A city-based NGO has brought out audio CDs of the class X textbooks in six subjects for the benefit of the more than 1,000 visually-impaired students of SSLC in more than 40 government and private schools in the State. There have been instances in the past of students in government schools for visually-impaired in Mysore, Gulbarga, Hubli and Davangere having to borrow braille textbooks from their seniors.

Shubhodaya Charitable Trust aims to provide the CDs free of cost to these students. About 130 lessons in Kannada, English, Hindi, maths, science and social science have been recorded and stored in the CDs.

While claiming that this was a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Trust has used the services of Vasanthkumar for Kannada, Govindan for social science, Sujatha for Hindi, Balakrishna and Ramesh for English textbooks. Students can also store these high-quality recordings on their mobile phones and iPads. Students who want the CDs may send their name, school name, headmaster’s name, school and house address along with mobile number to [e-mail]. For details visit www.shubhodayaforph.org.