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073 - Producing digital textbooks in accessible formats, DLF, Sri Lanka
CONTACT
DAISY Lanka Foundation (DLF)
Mr. Asoka Bandula
Sri Lanka
+943 122 48 526
OVERALL GOAL /MISSION
The mission of this project is to enable students with visual impairments and other print disabilities to get access to
educational materials that would otherwise be unavailable to them. This shall happen using electronic devices with
assistive technologies and digital textbooks created in special formats. These formats shall enable the students to read
digital books by using text to speech software. They are also equipped with navigation, search and note functions,
especially designed for the visually impaired.
THE SOLUTION THAT HAS BEEN DEVELOPED
In Sri Lanka, students with visual impairments are pretty much excluded from participating in the education system
because of the lack of having access to educational materials. They are not able to read standard print books and do not
have access to electronic reading devices or digital educational materials. That is why they are left behind other
students, often times drop out of the educational system at an early stage and are dependent on teachers or friends to
read for them or prepare alternate formats in the form of hard copies (e.g. books in Braille). This exclusion from the
educational system often limits their employability and the access to information and knowledge. As a solution, local
organizations and publishers were trained to produce specially formatted digital versions of textbooks and other
educational materials. Heretofore over 1000 accessible, digital textbooks were produced and visually impaired students
are being loaned electronic reading devices with text-to-speech software and trained in their use. Furthermore
additional content from other countries is being made available to students via the Accessible Books Consortium
"TIGAR" service, which enables cross country sharing of digital versions of books between libraries for visually impaired
people.