The rate of my dependency doubles up from the amount of interest I have to learn, since practical difficulties cripple the visually impaired when they step out of school, said R. Gurusamy, a visually impaired third-year law student, at School of Excellence in Law, Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University, Chennai, and native of Madurai.
He said that he switched to audiobooks in Class 10. “It’s a blessing to break away from the automated reading features which a few apps provide. But to find volunteers to record our college study materials is a Herculean task. Apart from that, the onus on finding scribes has completely fallen on me unlike in school where everything was taken care of,” he noted.
P. Iyyankalai and C. Prabhu, alumna of the Indian Association for the Blind at Sundarajanpatti near here and second year students pursuing B.A. History at Raja Doraisingam Government Arts College, Sivaganga, said, “It is always an excruciating task to hunt for scribes to help us out with writing internal exams and assignments.”
S. Vinoth Kumar, a final year student pursuing BA. English literature at Ayya Nadar Janaki Ammal College, Sivakasi, did not feel any different.
“Even if there are volunteers, there is no ‘scribe bank’ as such where we can locate them. Also, professors need to be sensitised to handling the visually challenged and be inclusive,” he said.
B. Sangili, a visually impaired and former teacher at IAB, Madurai, said that he still received calls from his students seeking to arrange scribes.
K. Dinesh, a freshman at Mannar Thirumalai Naicker College, who scored 503 in his Class 12 boards, said that the time spent on finding people to volunteer in creating audiobooks or writing assignments is eating up his study time.
“As a result I can see my marks drop and the interest to study is waning because of this,” he said. More colleges must set up exclusive sections for books in braille, they said.
One of the volunteers, C. Deepalakshmi, who helped in recording 40 volumes of Dr. Ambedkar’s Speeches and Writings in Hindi for a Ph.D. research scholar at Delhi University, said that there was a dearth of volunteers.
“Many visually impaired from rural backgrounds with an appetite to learn are clipped due to lack of volunteers and or having to burn a hole in their pockets when they find one,” she noted. She urged colleges to connect with recording groups as well as form an internal group of volunteers to help them out.
Another scribe for six years S. Saraswathi, based out of Madurai, said that the COVID-19- induced lockdown brought together many sprinkled volunteer groups through WhatsApp. “Most homemakers in my circle came forward to utilise their time in a fulfilling way and write assignments for such students. But we need more of them,” she said.
While M. Yukesh, coordinator, Lit the Light, Madurai chapter, an NGO that helps the visually impaired, called for colleges to step up and equip themselves to provide a cordial study environment for them like roping in NSS volunteers to help these students out.
Mr. Yukesh and Ms. Saraswathi also sought testing of these students in a different way, such as “instead of making them write assignments, they can conduct viva.” If we really want to help someone, we can always find some time, they noted.
