The Year long project at TSRS

Last week, students of Class  at TSRS recorded for the CLABIL project .

The follow up activity was for them to visit an institution. We chose Junta Blind Hostel in Gurgaon.

And on this day, like some other days, i can see the difference Esha makes to real people. To the children who went to that school. They came out thoroughly impressed with the talents and ability of the people they had just visited. Those children came out transformed.
Am very grateful for that.

We'll let pictures do the rest of the talking.

Understanding Computer education - and the concept of screen readers

computer class room - they are being shown how screen readers are used

having fun :)

getting VERY impressed with the fine work involved in chair making and the precision involved.

this was the best part - in the music room, the visitors sang a song that they had prepared for the school. In turn, the school also sang a song that was prepared for the visitors. At the end, both sides were singing with each other :)

learning braille - formally.

group photu at the end. In the pic are Swapna mam who is the class teacher of the class, Narendra sir who runs the Gurgaon institution, and of course, a bunch of very happy kids.

 

Feedback: The Sri Ram School Theater Workshop

On 6^th March, 2013, Raju from Esha took a workshop. It was very impactful. Children were very thankful to Raju Bhaiya for taking then on a journey with no eyes. It was conducted to sensitise the children towards visual impairment and after the workshop we all felt that without this workshop we could not have created the same impact.

Web Anywhere: A web based screen reader :)

Today, i heard about the most amazing thing - a web based screen reader that is absolutely pathbreaking!!! Its called WebAnywhere (WA).

Why is a web based screen reader revolutionary ?
Because it completely ELIMINATES  machine and software dependancy. Before WA, a blind person could only use their own machine to use personal computing. the screen reader needed to be installed on the machine.

But now, ANY machine can be used by a blind person. All they need to do is to click on the link and they're on!!

Happy Independence Day, Folks! We are free to use any machine we want from here on.

See the awesomeness here:
http://webanywhere.cs.washington.edu/beta/index.php

More 9Tankis with students - IIT Delhi and The Sri Ram School, Aravali

As i have said before.. when we do 9Tankis with children, it always excites me more because when we sensitise the children, we sensitise the future.

So we are very happy to talk about the workshops that happened this quarter - with IIT Delhi, and with Class 7 students of The Sri Ram School, Aravali campus.

The pictures of the Sri Ram School workshop are here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.521827587868147.1073741826.100001227328495&type=1&l=76a93fda9d

For IIT Delhi, we could only get this picture:

Theater Workshop (9Tanki) of Esha at IIT Delhi, Feb 2013

Raju Koli continues to be very popular with all the people who attend the workshop. His feedback is so positive that even we are moved and touched, every single time.

I was reading through the IIT Delhi feedback and if even 10% of these students remember a part of the experience they went through today.. we will live in a lot more inclusive world.

Even at The Sri Ram school, the enthusiasm of the teachers, and their involvement in the entire project was so wonderful...

days like this make us want to send a prayer - someone up there is watching out for us.. :)
 

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

Need Help: Legal Rights in everyday language.

 Please help create some legal guidelines in Indian languages that can be used by those of us who are not english literate.

For instance, what are the rights of a married woman in her marital and parental home? what are the legal options for parents who have been abandoned by their children? or parents who are being pressurised by children to give up their financial rights to their own property.

This content will help a lot of people. please spread the word. you can record in any Indian language or even English, spoken slowly and in indian accent.