A walk in the dark jungle with characters from Panchatantra has always been narrated to visually impaired K. Durgadevi by her teachers. “Sometimes we just convey the crux of the story,” says her teacher M. Christie Leela.
To make the visually challenged independent readers, moral stories and folktales such as Panchatantra, Jataka Tales, Akbar and Birbal series books and self-improvement books such as Vetriyin Rahasiyam were brought out in the Braille format on Tuesday. The Tamil and English version of the books were donated to the Anna Centenary Library and Sarva Siksha Abhiyan on the Louis Braille Day.
“They can now experience the pleasure of reading story books without waiting for our assistance,” said Ms. Leela.
Educational books are the ones predominantly available in the Braille format, said P. Chandraseskar, Honorary Treasurer, National Association for the Blind.
Launching the books, S.S. Jawahar, Secretary, Department for the Welfare of the Differently abled Persons said, in an information world, access to a variety of books is important.
“We are working on various initiatives such as propagating the employment of differently abled in private sectors and in providing them a barrier-free environment. We are also laying emphasis on providing special attention to the different categories of challenges,” he said.
The visually challenged have largely had access to educational books. “To propagate more awareness among publishers and encourage them to take up publication of more such books, we will give the trust a stall in the Chennai book fair next year,” said president, The Booksellers' and Publishers' Association of South India, Gandhi Kannadasan.
At a time when voice-recorders dominate educational institutions and libraries for the visually impaired, only the habit of reading can teach children the basics of language such as spellings and grammar, said Mahua Seth of Third-eye.
This would greatly help students when they write competitive examinations in the future, she said.
The books would also give visually challenged parents the joy of reading out to their children, said Shanti Bhattacharya, faculty member at IIT-Madras.
N. Latha, joint director, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, and Gayatri Sankaran, a visually challenged musician, were present.
