Project Brief: The Indian Association for the Special Education and Rehabilitation (IASER) is planning to start this project. Using a computer, a scanner and an OCR program, college level books will be scanned and made available through CDs to the blind students
Project Type: Children with Disabilities (description)
Primary Focus: creating resources (description)

Secondary Focus: other

Area: Tribal
Supporting Chapter Contact:
Cleveland

Status: CLOSED - ENDED
Project Steward: Santanu Panda
Project Partner(s): Jagdish Chander
Project Address: Asha Trust - Progressive Literature for Sightless (IASER)
Indian Association for Special Education, Flat No. 404,
Pocket 4, Sector 2
Rohini, Delhi 110085
Tel: +91-11-2766-2628.
Stewarding Chapter: Cleveland

The Modus of Operandi of the Project
Initially, it will be a project for three years and it can be enlarged as per the demand of the consumers and as per the need of the hour. It is proposed that during this period, attempts will be made to find indigenous funding so that a sense of involvement be developed even in the funding agencies based in India.

However, the plan is given hereunder for a year. To run such a project, one needs two computers and two scanners. It is estimated that one may need about a dozen books preferably the reference books or original writings. It is planned to provide reading material of about 72 books in the first year.

So far as the manpower is concerned, there is a plan of organizing this project in two shifts with a view of maximum output. Hence, there will be an involvement of four computer literate and academic oriented persons.

For such project one needs at least one big room which will initially be on rent.

It will be preferred that only those people will be enrolled as consumers who are conversant in English and either engaged in at least graduate studies or interested in such readings.

There is a plan of increasing this project gradually by including one computer every year and involving two computer literates for scanning and correction annually. By the third year, it will be a project having four computers and eight computer literates. At the same time, there will be an enhance in the output i.e., in the second year, at least 108 books will be scanned and corrected and by third year, its number will enhance up to 144 books.

Result Achieved
It is understood that in the course of three years, we could manage to provide around 325 books which are otherwise neither available nor is thought of being provided by anybody. If this project yields the desirable output, the Society is planning to open a reading room in which the interested readers may come and get the literature at their choice. We are not planning to distribute literature on Composite Discs as, due to its easy access, it could not get the desired value and majority of the persons fail to read the literature which they had taken with some enthusiasm. We are interested in quality and if this quality increases in numbers, there is nothing like that.