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Visually – impaired person develops
Hindi screen reader
Sight for the blind
- Electronic
text in Hindi can be accessed by the visually challenged
- Costs
Rs. 3,000 while a similar Us-made software costs Rs.
45,000
- Govt.
staffers to be the first beneficiaries.
Lucknow: His is an amazing story.
At the age of eight, glaucoma pitched scared Dinesh
kaushal’s world into darkness. Twenty years later,
Dinesh has helped develop the world’s first ‘Hindi screen
reader’, which will revolutionize the manner in which
the visually challenged access and use the information
superhighway.
A
java-certified MSc in computer science, Dinesh has been
a key component in collaboration between National Association
for the Blind (NAB), Delhi, and a Lucknow know-based
software development company, in building the ‘Hindi
screen reader’. The screen reader picks up text on
any computer screen being accessed by a visually –challenged
person and then reads it out. What is revolutionary
is that for the first time, electronic text in Hindi
can be easily and effortlessly accessed by the visually
challenged. And the first application the whiz-team
from NAB and software firm are thinking of is enabling
lakhs of visually challenged government staffers across
India.
Dinesh’s
story is as awe-inspiring as this invention is exciting.
After losing his eyesight at the age of eight, Dinesh
was shifted to a special school for the blind where
he started off from nursery once again and studied till
class X. “What I didn’t like about the special school
was that they didn’t teach mathematics and science after
class VIII and even what was taught till class VII was
not a very good standard,” recounted Dinesh. “Though
I liked economics, I studied humanities till class XII
(in a normal school), I shifted to commerce stream in
college. There, I faced problems with mathematics,
so I decided to study maths on my own,’ said Dinesh.
His MSc in computer science is proof of this victory,
especially in light of the fact that Dinesh interned
with Microsoft India.
“In 1997, I was introduced to Internet and I realized that
there was an ocean of information lying there to be
explored,” says this software programmer on a singular
mission of empowering the visually challenged in India.
This
is where Dinesh was introduced to Dipendra Menocha,
head of the computer division at NAB, and himself visually
challenged, and then got involved with NAB. “During
my graduation I was introduced to talking computers
by Dipendra,” said Dinesh. As Dinesh’s interest in
computers grew, he realized the limitations of various
software solutions available for blind. “I realized
that though technology provided limited computer access
to the visually challenged, the vast majority of visually
challenged was still deprived of information highway
due to cost and language barriers,” explains Dinesh.
Incidentally, Dinesh too uses a screen reader while
programming.
“A
similar American-made software is available, but costs
about Rs. 45,000 and cannot read Hindi. This is where
our Hindi screen reader scores, as it costs about Rs.
3,000,” says Vinamra Agarwal, business director of Software
Company.
Vinamra
summed it up saying, “Dinesh’s conviction and single-mined
persistence is remarkable. It is humbling to see much
dedication to a cause.”
Source: The Times of India
Date: 28th March 2004
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