Online library Vaasippom helps visually impaired people find the best of Tamil learning materials in one place

Technology may have upended traditional print media forever, but more people are into reading than ever before. Digital archiving and databases have made it possible for niche sections of the reading public, such as the visually challenged, to dip into the same pool as everyone else when it comes to electronic and audio books.

One such online resource is ‘Vaasippom’ (Let Us Read), an online Tamil library for visually impaired people. Started in 2017 with the aim of creating a centralised system of electronic learning materials in Tamil for visually impaired users, Vaasippom currently has 250 registered members from across the world, and 14 sighted volunteers from Tiruchi, Madurai, Coimbatore and Chennai, who are in charge of reading and recording texts.

“I started as a volunteer in a reading centre in Chennai, and later joined a Google group for the visually impaired. While sharing electronic and audio books, I realised that there was no central database of what we were working on. I started Vaasippom to connect users and volunteers and also minimise repetition,” says S Ravikumar, founder of the web resource, and a software professional based out of Chennai.

Ironing out the tech

Ravikumar also noticed that the available texts were predominantly in English, and as such, were automatically compatible with the existing software.

“Tamil has to be transcribed with the help of Unicode (an international encoding standard for languages by which each letter, digit, or symbol is assigned a unique numeric value that applies across different platforms and programs). We wanted to reach out to people who were having trouble finding good quality material in Tamil,” he says.

Vaasippom started with 18 audio-books and 120 e-books, and currently has 300 volumes in each of the formats. E-books are available in WORD, HTML, EPUB, MOBI versions, and have an advantage over audio, because screen-reading software (NVDA/JAWS/E Speak) enable visually impaired users to ‘read’ books independently.

In the case of audio books, volunteers use their mobile phones or digital voice recorders and forward their clips to Ravikumar, who checks for textual and technical quality before uploading them on Vaasippom. “We advise our readers to do their recording in a calm studio-like environment, and take regular half-hour breaks to ensure a consistent reading style. It takes a reader 10 hours to record 300 printed pages,” says Ravikumar.

As recording technology has evolved from magnetic audio tapes to compact disks, USB drives, IC recorders, screen reading software, and even Optical Character Recognition (OCR), it has reduced the visually impaired user’s need for a human aide, says Ravikumar.
 

At first I felt that this was something that the visually impaired needed because they didn’t have any other option. But within a year of starting Vaasippom, I was pleasantly surprised to see that technology has actually made them so independent that they are now developing web pages, software and even operating systems on their own,” he says.

Responsible reading

On popular demand, Vaasippom lists out creative writing by visually impaired members on a separate page. Ravikumar is also mulling a section on radio plays done by visually impaired actors.

He has also started a section called ‘Namakku Naame’ (We, for Ourselves), which encourages members to contribute a small sum every month to create a book-buying fund for the group.

“We have 70 people who have subscribed to this scheme. It allows Vaasippom to focus on the specific titles that our members want, without having to rely on donors to buy them for us,” says Ravikumar. “This also makes people more actively involved in the book selection process.”

Vaasippom’s greatest success has been the transcription of the new Tamil Nadu school syllabus text-books which are used by Government school teachers, students and people who are preparing for competitive exams.

The library keeps the buzz going with group chats on WhatsApp and Google, overcoming geographical and physical barriers. “Among the books that we are really proud of having in our database is an audio version of K Venkatesan’s Inthiya Varalaru (Indian History), done by our volunteers Sudha and Prabha, and a dramatised Tamil translation of Harry Potter by visually impaired users,” says Ravikumar.

As the demand for English texts grows, Ravikumar feels Vaasippom should get at least a thousand Tamil titles on its database first. “As a society, we have a long way to go when it comes to saving literature. Digital archiving is one possible solution to reclaim what we have lost in its original version,” he says.
Source: https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/online-library-for-tamil-learning-materials-focused-on-visually-challenged-users/article27660534.ece