July 8, 2019
A group of students and faculty members at a Bengaluru college have
developed a software called Soft Braille to help visually impaired people get
better access to images and maps in Braille.
Accessing images and maps is a major challenge for blind and low vision
students, coming in the way of critical choices in academics. A new software
aims to help them overcome those challenges.
Called Soft- Braille, it has been developed by a group of
students from Bengaluru and claims to make the printing of
images and maps on Braille stationery easier. A
dot matrix printer will be used for this and it will be made
available at cheap rates.
Created by students and faculty members of the MS Ramaiah Institute
of Technology (MSRIT), this could make a significant impact for
students, believes law student Maitreya Shah, who
appreciates these efforts.
This is a great invention because there are many people who use Braille and
tactile extensively. But the printing cost of Braille papers for images and
texts is very high. This team has definitely tried to cover the
disadvantages of Braille. I also strongly feel that it is high time we move
towards technological solutions rather than going for conventional ways.
Technology oriented solutions are the best.- Maitreya Shah, Law
student
Currently, Braille textbooks have an appendix with images pertaining to the
texts. Soft-Braille will change that. Images related to the chapter can be
easily printed on the same page, making things easier for the user. The
Mathru Educational Trust in Bengaluru is providing the
software free of cost to all visually impaired students enrolled here and
claims to be getting a good response.
Such access will open doors to more academic and career choices believes
Simran Chawla. Simran, who is visually impaired, studied
science in school, came up against many barriers. “Being a science student, I
can understand the difficulties faced by a visually impaired person in
knowing diagrams because we have to imagine it all. That is when such
software will come to our rescue because we can become familiar with images,
shapes and diagrams”.
The team behind Soft Braille is now working on a vernacular version so more
students can access it.
ALSO READ: 6 by 6 – BarrierBreak’s amazing new app helps visually impaired
people identify currency
Source: https://newzhook.com/story/22741
