Saksham Stall at the World Book Fair

The Sunday was spent at the World Book Fair.

Pleasant Surprise no. 1: A Punjabi Mushayara in Seminar Hall no. 1, Hall no. 14. Some lovely poetry was heard.

Pleasant Surprise no. 2: The Saksham stall at the same hall. I was asked to register, then given my name card in Braille. Then, we were blindfolded and taken inside another space to play 4 games. The volunteers are happy people who try their best to help you do better. To our credit, we scored all 40 points!

There, I also met a kind gentleman from Saksham, who took the time to talk, get their cards braille enabled, showed us a new kind of plastic brailler (which, by the way, had the same issues as the metal brailler) and also gave us the sad news that a brailler now costs 35000 rupees! We discussed CLABIL with enthusiasm and I also got a demo of the awesome Daisy Reader.

We exchanged information and decided to work on areas of synergy. I look forward to that one!

Sanat Sir from Saksham who spent some time talking. I then requested him to please pose with this powerful poster.

There, we got a perfect score.. with some help from the lovely volunteers who remain unseen

That's the stall for you - in a corner, but definitely not quiet.

Year in Review - 2013

Its that time of the year again.. when we look wistfully at the year gone by and hopefully at the year coming up..

This is also Esha’s annual roundup for you – in familiar bullet points J

This was a very good year for Esha. We entered into some lovely partnerships:

·         SOIL – School of Inspired Leadership. 4 students from SOIL are doing an year long internship with Esha, where they contribute one day a week to working with us. It has been a lovely experience with Rosemary, Sabrish, Sahil and Vipul. SOIL students recorded for CLABIL for the third year in a row during the Joy of Giving week. The relationship with everyone at SOIL has been too wonderful and enriching to be put into words.

 

·         The Sri Ram School, Aravali also was a year long partner. Class 7 students of TSRS Aravali went to a blind school as part of the school’s partnership with Esha. I always say that the blind don’t get greeting cards. But this year, students of Class 7 surprised us by making one card for every student that they were going to meet at the blind school. I was, simply, overwhelmed. Am taking the liberty of attaching a picture of the cards they made, along with their teachers.

Every single student of Class 7 also recorded for CLABIL. J Every visit to the blind school was an enriching experience for both sides – the guests always prepared something for their hosts – a song, a card, a skit.. the works. The enthusiasm of these children truly made one grateful for the work that happens through us. 180 students are today more sensitive to the needs of visual challenge, thanks to the initiative of their school.

·         The Kahaani Project was our third important partnership of the year. Now, we will share each other’s content and use it for common good. Thank you, Ajay for contributing over 50 files to CLABIL.

·         In May this year, we ran a 3 day training program on Open Source based personal computing for the visually challenged. The potential was immense. This training was run at 3 blind schools in the Delhi NCR region as a pilot. Unfortunately, that training will have to be part of our lessons learnt, till we are able to redesign the model and launch the program again. But one good thing came out of that training – we got an Open Source evangelist who is now working to familiarise his peers with the free software that makes personal computing so easy. Thanks to Archana, he also has a personal laptop of his own, and he uses it to good effect.

·         Braille cards continue to be popular and well liked. The Delhi center, which was operational for the most part, had to be closed (again!) because of the migration of the person doing that work here in Delhi. It is my fervent hope that these adults, who learn the Braille enabling of visiting cards, are in some way, doing things in their own villages too.

·         The theatre workshops had a very good run in the first half of the year and slowed down in the second half. Am now planning to have public workshops and am working towards getting the space for that.. if that happens, we will be able to offer workshops to a lot more people.. you can wish us luck on that one, and yes, if someone you know is looking for a fun activity for their team in the NCR region, do think of the 9Tanki theatre workshop. It will be a lot of fun!

·         This year, we ran an exhaustive market test study on the Tactile mazes and on the basis of the results, we have had to take the tough decision of discontinuing tactile mazes as an Esha product. But they will always remain special. You can see this much loved, but unsustainable product here: https://www.facebook.com/eshabraille/media_set?set=a.165678970149679.58488.100001227328495&type=1

·         CLABIL continued to grow – organically. With volunteers and partners and loving friends. We close the year with 1960 files  - just short of 2000. But there is a lot more work to be done.

I noticed that the update is really long, and we have only tried to sum up the most important points.. J There is no end to how far we can go, when we travel with friends.. so i will end the year with the emotion one feels most at this time – Gratitude. For every single Friend of Esha. For everyone who has been with us as we complete 9 years and enter our 10^th year in January 2014, and for everyone who joined the caravan along the way.

For every prayer that was sent up for us, and for every hand that helped.

But most of all, for the God that chose an instrument, and kept believing in it.

Wishing you and your loved ones a very happy 2014!

Esha as Incubator for the VI entrepreneurs

Yesterday, in a very invigorating discussion with SOIL students on what Esha is and is not, i was trying to stress the point that Esha is in the business of creating entrepreneurs, not contract workers. So the invoice goes in the name of the person and s/he gets the money directly.

And a very old Friend of Esha, sitting nearby, said, "So basically, you are a VC for the VI ?"

At that time, it seemed like a very good way of putting what we do at esha. we train them, incutabe them, mentor them till they are ready to open their wings and fly on their own.

But later, the more i thought about it the more intriguing it became. Like an epiphany, it occured: We dont incubate entrepreneurs. We look for employment options and design solutions and train. A very crucial element is missing here - the fire within. For an entrepreneur, the fire burns within him/her. Its not implanted from someone else.

And thats what's missing in our model - we do not listen to ideas that the VI might have, and then incubate them on these ideas.

And why dont we do it?
A. Most of our people dont know the open market enough to diagnose unmet needs and come up with solutions. They know the VI market very well, and in discussions with them, i have seen them come up with improvement areas for the VI space. So, thats a limitation. We might have to hear 100 ideas, maybe 500, before arriving at a viable one. Thats a risk and headache all incubators take.
B. The mindset. Like all Indians, they are brought up on the assurance of a govt job as a panacea for all financial problems and life problems. It is very hard, really, to break that mindset and think outside that box.

Neither of these, however, is a reason why we should NOT start that model - of listening to people who are visually challenged and want to start a business. Why Not?

So, we're on. The Esha model hereby undergoes a small change and incorporates a new area - we will now, also listen to original business ideas. if we have the moneys, we will do funding. Otherwise, we will mentor and provide guidance through highly qualified and committed Friends of Esha.

What do you think?

Preeti Monga - Esha Achiever of the Month - Part 2 of the guest post by Sandeep Koul

“Ye Bandar adrak ka swaad chakh chuka hai”, she quipped. “Ab ise aur badi adrak chahiye.”

Made sense – for a visually impaired entrepreneur who, instead of moping about her fate made it her job to motivate “healthy” individuals – though she soon dispelled the myth about this purported “health” too. As she said, “Those of us who look “healthy” on the surface are the ones who need the most help – they have been on their own the longest”.

My next canned question fit in nicely here, so I asked, “It is so easier to accept the pity you are offered than to soldier on at an equal footing. What makes you choose the tougher route, and where do you get the energy to do it?” While I got a decent answer to the first half of this question, the second half remained unanswered – probably because she, like the rest of us, has no idea as to what keeps her ticking, “I see life as a choice between being a giver and a taker, and I choose to be a giver”, she said.

“In the early “struggle” days, how did you handle naysayers, and more importantly, your own self doubt?” I asked. She replied, “In my early struggle days, I was a little girl and I used to be very disturbed by the attitude of people around me. I used to get left out of almost everything and used to cry nonstop. My mother and my father were my counselors and they always helped me to look at all that I had and others did not have. They helped me to recognize my strengths and made me happy with that.

As for naysayers, an example here: When visitors came home my mother made sure I served them water, made tea for them and served them. This would be done amidst horrified shrieks of, “No, No don’t bother Mrs. Singh, we will help ourselves! Don’t get the poor girl to do all this! “ And then when my mother would happily smile and encourage  me to continue my duty with a smile; and all the work was done, all would be OK! The visitors would settle down to the normal chit chatting and go away crestfallen as they realized that their pity was not at all required or welcome! And all ended well, slowly the condoling about the loss of  my  eyesight came to an end!

My next question was, “Who has been the one significant influence on your life and how? She replied, “My parents,  My Mami (my mother’s brother’s wife), Helen Keller,  and many  others. How is  a difficult one to answer in just a few words. They inspired, and motivated me and still do.”

Here, I decided – enough personal stuff let’s get general here. I asked, “Do you think the silver line philosophy applies to today’s dirty political world too?” Without batting ane eyelid, she countered “There is  nothing dirty or clean. It is how you choose to look at it. There is always a Silver Lining to everything; it is you who has to develop the  sensibility to look for it. There are always 2  sides to everything.”

Fair enough – it was a valid point of view, and I understood that I wouldn’t get far talking about global stuff here. Safety lay in sticking to personal stuff. So, I changed pace again, and asked, “Do you not often encounter cynicism (external as well as internal) and if yes, how do you cope with it?”  She replied, “I just be myself, everyone is welcome to his/her prospective.  Also, I try not to judge, everyone is entitled to be as they are.  Same goes for me too.”

Preeti Monga - Esha Achiever of the Month - Guest Post by Sandeep Koul

I was new to this, had no previous experience taking such an interview (although I had been on both sides of the table for countless job interviews…). So, I kind of looked forward to the experience, hoping the exercise would enrich me – give my overloaded resume another skill to boast of. Alas, it was not so – speaking to Preeti Monga ( Director, Silver Linings ) was just like having a friendly chat with one’s mom. I had kept a few canned questions prepared, so that I came across as a professional guy, and hoped that their answers would lead to further questions. I had also decided to admit up front that this was my first time and seeing the extensive media coverage that the subject had been exposed to previously, I thought she would have a better idea about how to go about it than I would.

With this, I launched into a planned spiel about Esha – what it does and why. This did not go too well, since she began telling me about the visiting cards she wanted Braille inscribed and began asking me how to go about it. I had been mistaken for a Salesperson from Esha, and I set out to correct this mistake as soon as possible. I gave her Nidhi’s coordinates, and said I had called for an interview. This non – vegetarian who loves to read, knit, travel, chat and investigate spirituality took the hint, and allowed me to move on.

With that, I jumped into my first brilliant question, the reply to which I hoped would generate enough new questions to last me the interview. I asked, “Tell me the story of your life in your own words.” The answer I got, though factual and informative, did not do the trick for me. She said, “That’s what I have written an autobiography for. You can get the info you want at our website too - www.silver-linings.org/.”

 

Touche, maam – guess  that was the first lesson to at least conduct background research before barging into someone’s life. Then, I wheedled that this question had been my “master question”, which I had hoped for it to lead to many “corollary” questions – so she gave me a perfunctory response about being a “successful granny”.

Hey, I just realized that I am committing the cardinal sin – writing about the interviewer and the interview, not about the interviewee, as I should. So, to set the right tone here and in the interview, I jumped to my second “canned” question – “How do you motivate yourself to face the world every morning?” The answer to this one had me stumped for a moment – she said, “how about you, how do you do it?” I sure as hell hadn’t been expecting a counter – question, and my mumblings were ignored, as they deserved to be. Then, finally, we got a quotable answer, and the interview was underway. She said, “I set goals – and drive myself to achieve them. Once I taste success, I set larger, tougher goals ad infinitum”.

 

In between, she made an attempt to make me more comfortable at this by telling me that her younger brother was also named “Sandeep”. Our identical taste in music, in terms of loving Rafi saab and oldies, was another source of comfort. Though the similarity did not extend to the kirtans from Granth Sahib she adored.

My next canned question fit in nicely here. “The kudos palls after a while – so why go on?” “Ye Bandar adrak ka swaad chakh chuka hai”, she quipped. “Ab ise aur badi adrak chahiye.”

 

On that note.. to be continued...

The Open Source Software Quiz

Because we are so excited about the Open Source Training coming up in May 2013, we decided to make this quiz post about Open Source software.

1. Open Source is the same as freeware.
True
False

2. Windows and Linux are both open source free Operating Systems.
True
False

3. Sourceforge.net is a website for sharing open source programs.
True
False

4. Open Source Programs can run only on Linux or other open source Operating systems.
True
False

5. Which of these words is NOT an open source product/ term?
A. Safari
B. Firefox
C. Ubuntu
D. Linux
E. Apache

6. Copyright means that the software should not be freely distributed. What does "copyleft" mean?
A. There is no such term.
B. Copyleft means that the software can be freely redistributed, no restictions.
C. That the software can be freely redistributed, but all modified and extended versions of the software must use the same license.

7. You cannot use Windows and Open Source Software on the same computer.
True
False

8. Which of these is a paid software ?
A. LibreOffice
B. Microsoft Office
C. Open Office.

9. Facebook, Google and other sites were possible only because they used open source software for development. This kept their costs low. They still run on open source.
True
False

10. What is the name of this cute penguin, the logo of Linux?

A. Linus
B. Rex
C. Tux

Credits: In creating this quiz, i learnt from: (aka, where can you find more fun quizzes)
http://whatis.techtarget.com/quiz/Quiz-More-fun-with-open-source
http://www.howstuffworks.com/ubuntu-and-linux-quiz.htm
http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source/open-source-iq-test-766


PS: we have created this quiz. please feel free to record into audio for the Esha beneficiaries, convert it to Indian languages and then record it. In fact, please DO all of the above, and we will be happy.

What we want

Today, i was at the AICB, at their really nice computer lab, explaining to them about the CLABIL project and looking at avenues of joint collaboration. (i'd basically gone there to pick up a brailler and we got talking)

Two of our most successful projects on the CLABIL (www.clabil.org) are:
Learn English
GK

When i said this, the computer teacher smiled and nodded in agreement. i was thinking of that nod and agreement on the way home and realised something really interesting. In a normal school, if we ask them what more they want, GK is never likely to be on that list. Sighted children get an overdose of GK and current affairs, and will do a lot to avoid having to read more GK. While our children seek out GK.

I think thats an interesting ... juxtaposition.

The word believe actually means Be.Live. To believe something is to BE it and to LIVE it.

Nowhere is it more true that at Esha. If we didnt believe in this idea so completely, we could never have realised, to whatever extent, this insane dream.

 

John Wood's Leaving Microsoft to change the world

Thank you, Ruchi, for insisting that i should read this book. I have loved it from the first page.

And there is so much to learn from the book - everyday.

I scurry to the book every 10 seconds i get.. between the computer booting up, at the traffic signal, every conceivable place.

So, here is what i have learnt so far.

• Follow your dream once you have found it. It might take away some other very important things from your life, but it will still be worth it.
• The happiness you get out of seeing people benefit from your work is immense.
• This is something that i also believe in a lot - You are just a conduit - the work happens on its own. people will always pitch in when you need help. It will come. Just believe. and wait.
• Think BIG. Braillecards is India's only service provider for braille cards. We have to convert at least 10% of all cards printed in india to braille. We are getting there, because we knew we were going to be big from the word go. CLABIL is India's biggest online audio library. It will scale up. We will take time, but we know where we're headed. Someday, audio resources will be as diverse as google is today. We'll get there. The design was for a big library, the idea was for consolidation of individual efforts.

Reading this book is a very positive experience. One learns on every page, and more importantly, its like having a conversation with someone whose ideas you understand. The struggles, the inevitable doubt, all of it is inspirational.

Happy New Year from Esha

Thank you, for being a friend of Esha, this year, and in the years that went before.

This is our annual bullet point review of what we did well, and what can be done better.  We know you are very busy, so this review is always in bullet points. J

But one point is important enough to jump out and sit on top of the bullet points. Please do read this one.

The CLABIL Project – what it can do

I started the online audio library in Indian languages for one reason – to make audio content easily available to the visually challenged, who do know English.

But this year, gradually, I realised that the CLABIL is more than that. Its an important national resource. Here’s why:

1.       Our official literacy rate is around 55%. The actual literacy (where people can read and write more than just their name and the alphabet, and can use the written word for any real exchange of ideas) is likely to be around 45%. OF these, even fewer will know English. But the way we have designed our world, is that access to English controls access to knowledge resources too.

2.       Once we remove this restriction – of English = knowledge, we will be able to make real knowledge available to a lot of people. Millions of them.

3.       This access to knowledge can, and will change their lives in a very positive way – small traders will have access to better business practices, little girls and children will know what their rights are, without knowing English. Children in remote villages will know about inventions and progress that can make life better for them and their villages. Women will know about their rights, even if they are unschooled. They will have access to literature that teaches them self respect.

And my new year wish, personally, is that this library should go on to create that value that it can potentially create for those millions. This is a very, very ambitious wish.

But step by step, day by day, we will be on our way.

What went well

·         The Delhi Center is finally operational. It is extra heartening that the boy is not just visually challenged, but also a tribal. Hopefully, when he takes this tale of self reliance back home, his grit will inspire others.

·         This year, we got The REX Global Karmaveer Puraskar – for being agents of change. This award goes out to every single Friend of Esha, who has done whatever they could to make Esha, and more importantly, the idea of Esha, a reality.

·         We did very well on the Braille cards and on the Theater workshops. The workshops continue to be funny and much liked. The Braille cards continue to be used by more and more people. We added some more corporate customers this year, and hopefully, the year ahead will add a lot more.

·         The Read Fests – small one day events where we record content for the CLABIL project at one go and then upload it, was done enthusiastically by a lot of organisations. IIT Delhi, SOIL (who did it for the second year running), Copal Partners (who ran it for a week ), The Sri Ram School (where students, on their own, tested every file before saving it, so we don’t have to do any follow up work, and STILL generated the highest no. of files in a single day – 96 files in one go) , and many others.

What we can do better
·         Get more volunteers involved.  We are missing a lot of opportunities because we are just not able to go and meet people.

·         We also need to start asking the questions around funding, expansion and growth very seriously now. Whether we like it or not, growth is happening at an exponential pace for Esha and its products. Please advise – what will be the best way to take Esha forward. The questions are around getting funding when we have no time to go meet people, getting paid volunteers who have the same fire in belly(Esha is a LOT of work) . These are the growth challenges facing us today, and we need all the advice and help we can get.

 

Where we need help

·         We desperately need technical help – especially on the online library – www.braillecards.org/audio.htm. i spoke to some technical people on this, but we have not been able to find a viable solution yet. Anyone who knows php dynamic rendering, please do get in touch. It doesn’t have to be free. If you know someone who can take this up as a paid assignment, we’ll be happy to have them.

·         We need some content recorded in Audio.

o   Laws demystified – especially for children, women, and senior citizens.

o   “Learn English” – in Marathi in particular, which a lot of people search for, and in other Indian languages.

o   Wikipedia in Indian languages, or GK in Indian languages.

o   Career counselling and awareness about various career options in Indian languages.

If you can record at home, or conduct a theme based Read Fest around you, will help  a lot.

 We end the year in gratitude for all the good things that happened, and for all the lessons learnt. We start the year with fervent hope, and a lot of zeal. Happy New Year to you and your loved ones.

PS: If you have not joined Esha on facebook yet, please do. www.facebook.com/eshabraille

We are the Disablers - Thoughts on World Disability Day,

Why do Russians get along just fine in Russia? Why do Germans get along just fine in Germany? And why do the blind get along just fine  in a Blind School, but really poorly outside? Why do some places witness more inbound migration than some others?

Because these environments are ENABLED for them. When a culture is open and accepting, when it wants to learn, and to enrich itself through further interaction with cultures it knows nothing about, then it becomes an ENABLING culture – it enables itself to continually grow, and it enables other people to become comfortable in itself.

Therefore, if you find a certain section of people “just plain unfortunate” or “so different from us” – please remember, they are not the disabled, we are the disablers.

Compared to a dog, our sense of smell is severly hampered and we are, in the eyes of the dog, quite literally, “smell disabled”. Likewise, a cat’s ability to see in the dark is far higher than ours and to the cat, we appear quite “disabled”, almost blind for half of our lives – the entire night, since we can’t see beyond a certain range at all.

So, in effect, we are all “disabled”. But it never affects our ability to go on with our lives, and does not impact our ability to lead productive lives. Because we have enabled the world to make the best use of the faculties that we do have, and to help us with the stuff that we don’t have. Keyword: we have “enabled” the world.

Why is it not that way for the blind, or the deaf-mute, or the other  differently abled? Because we have not enabled this world for their kind of disability. Only for ours.

Today, the Wrold Disability Day is not for the people we call "disabled". It is for us - the Disablers.

Happy Diwali

Diwali and Holi are both important festivals at Esha. Because the celebration of color and light is very important to us.

Here's wishing you, and all Friends of Esha a very Happy Diwali..

Help light up a life today!

Beyond Sight Exhibition in Delhi - October 2012

thats raised relief version of a beautiful pic. next to that is braille,
followed by audio.

here you can see the entire display - the picture, its story in english,
 the raised relief version so that the photographers are not
left out of experiencing their own pictures..
the braille description, and the audio mp3 player.

my favorite picture from the exhibition.

this pic stands out for this technical perfection. notice again
the raised relief version, english print, braille and audio description.
i was very impressed.

this little boy was too young to read ,
so he listened to the audio to understand the picture
 on his own. It WAS an experience.

 

And what a treat it was! so much to learn, so much to see!!

How to Organise a Read Fest - Part 2

Organising – Preparatory Work

1.      Take permission from IT and other relevant departments for the infrastructure requirement:

a.       Meeting rooms, with as little ambient noise as possible. These will be used as recording rooms. If you are choosing adjacent meeting rooms, it makes sense to leave one room empty between 2 recording rooms.

b.      Each meeting room needs a laptop / desktop with a working mic(internal or external mic is fine)  . This computer must have “Audacity” installed. Audacity is freely downloadable from www.sourceforge.net. Just search for Audacity and download. After this, try to save a test file as mp3 format. The system will prompt you to download a dll file by pressing a button. This button takes you to the dll file download site. It is safe. Please download dll and then save the file as mp3 once more. All Audacity computers should be able to save mp3 formats.

c.       Each recording room will also need water bottles / glass for the recording volunteer.

d.      You need to put up posters and also do some internal marketing to generate awareness about the event.

e.       Content: If you are a school / college, please request your teachers to contribute their papers / question banks for the Read Fest. They are an invaluable resource. If you are a student, please record your notes for all subjects if they are not already available in the catalog. If you are an office, record experiences of your profession so that other people can take a more informed career decision. The blind do not get career counselling or a chance to interact with professionals in this way. You can also record interview facing tips.

f.       All computers must be usb enabled. The content, once done, will be taken by the organiser in a pen drive.

g.      If any permission is required to send a pen drive / import a pen drive into office, please take such permissions.

h.      Arrange for visitor management to be approved if you are expecting any visitors – either from Esha or external for recording.

i.        All computers must also have unrestricted net access to Wikipedia, blogs and all other sites.

j.        If the requirement is of sample question papers and you have found some free ones offline, do save the link in favourites and ask the site administrator for permission. It is not always possible to find it last minute.

k.      Load the following documents on all machines:

                                                              i.      How to record for CLABIL (audacity user manual)

                                                            ii.      Read Fest FAQs

                                                          iii.      How to record (audio file)

l.        At some distance from the recording rooms, but close enough to be able to see them, is a control center. You need 3 volunteers are the control desk at all times. These volunteers will play the following roles:

                                                              i.      Content management – what has been recorded and what needs to be done yet. The content manager also does on the spot cataloguing as the files get recorded, or makes the catalog at the end of the read fest. But a record of what is being done by whom is kept by this person.

                                                            ii.      Queue management – who goes in in what order, who has practiced what they are going to record, who is ready to go in, how long is each one’s slot et al. The queue manager co-ordinates with the content manager to give content to volunteers and with the meeting room manager to send ppl when rooms get free.

                                                          iii.      Recording room management – This person is responsible for managing which meeting room is empty, guiding the volunteers to the meeting room, ensuring there is a glass of water there for them, then giving them a tutorial on audacity, explaining :

1.      How to record

2.      How to pause and resume recording

3.      How to stop and listen back if they doubt correct recording.

4.      How to check recording.

5.      How to correct by deleting the wrong parts.

6.      How to start a new segment.

7.      How to save as mp3 file and at what location.

8.      How to name the file for easy cataloguing.

9.      How to check your voice recording and correct before starting the final recording.

When the volunteer finishes, this person checks that the file has been saved correctly (mp3 format, naming convention, location of file) and then asks the queue manager for the next person who will come in.

All these 3 are full time roles with a lot of running around and 3 volunteers are mandatory for the control desk. Otherwise no one has a good experience.

2.      Complete the set up et al.

3.      Circulate a mail / communication asking for volunteers to pre register, with the Indian language that they can record in. This will help you prepare content.

How to convert your mobile phone recordings into mp3

If you are recording on your mobile phone for clabil, you will find that the voice quality is excellent, but the file type is usually .amr, not .mp3.

This might pose a problem to some users who dont have amr file readers.

Special thanks to Dadaji (Mr. Anil Bhagat, who has been a Friend of Esha for a few years now), for coming up with this site:

http://www.convertfiles.com/

we now use this site to convert .amr files to mp3 and then upload them to the library.

Coming up next: How to organise a read fest (contd)
 

Social Media lessons for esha -www.inclusiveplanet.com

In one of my other avatars, i love social media - especially its use by organisations to reach out to their stakeholders that matter.

One of the most important pieces of advice i give is to go where your audience is, instead of picking up a platform and expecting your audience to come there. So if your target audience is on facebook, go there. if your target audience is on twitter and prefers to correspond with crisp 140 char messages, go there.

Imagine my surprise, therefore, when, one day, on introspection, i realised that we were missing out on the biggest social media for our stakeholders - they browse and exchange ideas on www.inclusiveplanet.com , and while we did have a presence there, it was very sub optimal.

Am happy to report that as we write, we have made an effort to correct that. i have now been spending a lot of time engaging directly with people on www.inclusiveplanet.com . the sheer richness of sharing what happens there, is mindboggling.

Our focus always has been on reaching out to children and young people whose computer literacy is limited, or whose access to knowledge resources is very constrained. This here, is a set of computer literate, and heavy computer using visually challenged people, who are articulate about their challenges, their needs, and their accomplishments.

While we will continue to reach out to children who cannot reach a computer, it will also be lovely to help some of those who can reach a computer, and need to use that computer to reach their personal destinations. :-)

Update: Want to learn Braille?

If you want to learn Braille, this is one of those rare times. :-)

Tentatively on Saturday, August 25th, second half sometime, Esha will hold a Braille workshop. The venue is very likely to be close to DLF Phase 4 or 5.

It takes only about 20 minutes to learn Braille. So if you have always wanted to learn but didnt know whom to ask, or where to go, this is a good time to start!

Do spread the word.

Oh, and yes, we need a venue. The workshop is only for 5 seats (plus one seat for the trainer), and wont last longer than 40 minutes. The most suitable time is 1400 hours - just after lunch for most people. If you know someone who can volunteer a venue, please do let us know.

why reading the mother tongue is important

As part of Esha, we do a lot of Read Fests at schools, colleges and offices.
And increasingly, i have become aware of a seemingly small problem with huge implications.

A lot of volunteers cannot read, or fluently speak, any Indian language. Even their mother tongues.

And the reason why this is disturbing is this:
CLABIL is a way to bridge the literacy divide too. Access to English should not restrict access to knowledge resources.

The whole idea ot CLABIL is to create audio resources in Indian languages so that people(especially, the blind)  who do not have access to English education (Read: a vast majority of our population) do not lose access to knowledge. This is a form of democratisation of knowledge.

But when the generators of this content do not know Indian languages at all, we are faced with a vernacular illiteracy that makes it impossible for one set of people to communicate with the other set of people.

And then, the unique problem that we at Esha are faced with is this: People want to create content, but they cannot contribute in Indian languages. The beneficiaries want to use content, but English content is not the easiest for them to use.

What do you think we can do to solve this?