She doesn’t want to own a smartphone. So, is something wrong with her?
Certainly not; she’s just another person who has chosen her own space over the constant urge to check the Facebook page every other minute on the phone.
Smartphones, for a while now, have been on the list of basic needs of youngsters, and anyone who doesn’t use them is considered ‘left behind’. However, those like Asaithambi (21), a major in BCA, think that without a smartphone to hamper them, they are actually a little ahead of the rest.
Contrary to the notion that communication gets harder without smartphones, their absence actually seems to make for better person-to-person interaction. “I don’t use a mobile phone at all and it doesn’t affect my communication in any way,” she says.
Youngsters who stay away from smartphones say they do set apart time for browsing the Internet, but do not want it to become their life.
It is just not attractive enough for them. Meryl (19), for instance, says she wouldn’t own an iPhone even if it came for free. And, according to 25-year-old Preetha, an “addiction to smartphones among my peers only scares me away from owning one.”
Even newly-converted users are not completely sold on the advantages. Shivashankari (18), who recently bought a smart device, says, “I thought smartphones were a lot of fun, but now that I’ve got one, I have realised it does not live up to the hype.”
Focus on print-challenged
The needs of the print-challenged are coming into sharp focus.
Karna Vidya Technology Centre put up a stall at the recent Chennai Book Fair to highlight the requirements of the disabled and also the market potential for publishers to look at finding new customers.
“More than ever before, there are several technologies on computers and other smart devices that help the disabled access books,” says K. Raghuraman of Karna Vidya.
“There are screen readers that allow people to understand and appreciate text. The time has come for inclusive publishing of all material,” he says.
Though there is still some focus on Braille embossing of books, the future lies in text-to-speech technology and publishing needs to be done digitally. A bulk of Tamil publishing still happens in print formats, but digital formats — like EPUB — are catching up.
Audio books in formats such as DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) are preferred by the visually impaired. Popular screen reader software like Non Visual Desktop Access (NVDA) and Job Access with Speech (JAWS) are gaining widespread acceptance among users.
B. Malarkodi, a volunteer at Kottivakkam’s Worth Digitising, accesses Kalki’s Ponniyin Selvan in DAISY audio book format through Bookshare (www.bookshare.com), the online lending library for the print-disabled.
The Western voice synthesiser makes the Tamil sound strange but she gets it. “I understand it, but am sure you don’t,” she laughs.
