Blog
December 17, 2008
Do people with disabilities need access to libraries? How can we support them with assistive technology?
Filed under: Alternate Formats, Assistive Technologies, Elderly, Hearing, Learning, Mobility, Visual — Shilpi Kapoor @ 1:48 pmPeople with disabilities have an equal right to education and accessing information is a key to education. Libraries are an integral part of education institutes whether schools, colleges and universities.
So what is the type of support that people with disabilities need beyond accessible infrastructure. Let me list some of my thoughts down.
For students with low vision, who can see if with magnification, it would be good to have desktop magnifiers for patrons to access the books and newspapers. This would give people the option to magnify the text and read the documents easily. Check out Optelec ClearView + .
The Optelec ClearView + would be great in public libraries where even senior citizens visit the library.
For people with who can’t read with magnification, alteast having one computer, with scanning support and a screen reader support would be an advantage. Check out a combination of Cicero and Supernova.
To provide access to the books in alternate formats like braille, large print and daisy (digital talking book) format it would be essential to have a software that would do this. Check out EasyConverter
Providing books in alternate format will also help print disabled and students with learning disabilties.
It would be a good start to see this available for persons with disabilities in Indian libraries.
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