Braille PDA (by Humanware) (Photo credit: sinosplice)

A primitive-looking recording studio at the Government School for the Visually Impaired, Vazhuthacaud, has proven its worth in an unexpected way recently. But for it, the visually-impaired students in the state could not have appeared for the SSLC exams with confidence this year.

Visually-impaired students had been pushed into an academic crisis this year. Because of some technical glitches, Braille-enabled text books could not be printed for most of the subjects. However, this inadequacy was ably taken care of by a blind teacher in the school.

Rajneesh, the school’s computer instructor, recorded all the tenth standard texts using rudimentary recording tools, including amateur narrators like housewives and students.Those aural lessons were then copied to CDs and distributed to students. Soon orders were placed by all the 11 visually-impaired schools in the state.

“It is always better for a blind student to learn by feeling a Braille textbook,” said Raghunathan Nair, the principal of the Government Visually-Impaired School. “But now that we do not have the Braille-enabled texts, these audio CDs should be seen as a blessing,” he said

Though most of reading-out exercise was done by a set of teachers, parents and housewives living in nearby areas, at times, Rajneesh also got professional help for free.