Audio capsules: A boon for visually impaired students

Faculty member Rakesh Jain — who is recording these capsules of knowledge — is also visually impaired.

"The audio module is in big demand in European countries where the word spread through NRIs at rehabilitation universities," said Jain.

Available in three languages — English, Hindi and Urdu — these audiobooks recorded by the Jain and his team were lapped up by students across the world, including the United States, UAE and Austria.

Visually-impaired students were now able to revive the classroom ambience by listening to audio textbooks and reviews of web series recorded here.

Differently-abled students from school to graduation and post-graduation levels, who were unable to attend online classes in the pandemic, were now using these books to stay abreast of academics.

The audio capsules are available without any charge through Jain's non-profit organization — 'Rehabilitation Society of the Visually Impaired' (RSVI).

"The demand for audio books has shot up by more than 60 per cent. Requests are pouring in from rehabilitation institutions from across the globe. Compared to 800 requests per month, we are now getting more than 2,000," added Jain, who is also the Head of English department at Lucknow University's National PG College.

On demand, RSVI has recently launched two new audiobooks — 'RSVI News Capsule' that keeps students updated with news and entertainment and 'Udaan' which helps students prepare for competitive examinations.

The books were recorded by a team of 20 volunteers at two studios in Lucknow.

"Since the pandemic began, we have started sending audiobooks through a special file transfer application," said RSVI member Shradha Srivastava.

Nearly 1,500 textbooks of arts, science and commerce prescribed by UP Board, ISC, CBSE, NCERT and other universities have been converted into audiobooks covering syllabi from Class 1 to post-graduation. (IANS)

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