In order to make information and content readily available to disabled persons in developing countries, Ashoka-Lemelson Fellow Dipendra Manocha is providing disabled persons with the innovative technological tools they need to become productive citizens. Dipendra has developed an open source screen reading software in Hindi (SAFA) and other local languages in South Asia. Also, he is spearheading the development of low-cost playback devices for the DAISY standard – Digital Accessible Information System. His organization, Saksham, has forged partnerships with manufacturers and a courier company to create a special distribution system of affordable appliances for disabled people. Dipendra has also developed training programs with the National Association for the Blind; the technology-enabled resource center which he established for the academic and professional development of disabled persons in Delhi University is currently being replicated and adopted by other universities in South Asia. Dipendra is also working closely with large tech companies and demonstrating the advantage of employing disabled persons who are highly qualified to do the outsourced work and tend to have a lower turnover rate.According to Dipendra’s research, close to a quarter of the world’s blind population lives in India, where the literacy rate for blind and visually-impaired people is as low as 20%. This problem is tied directly to the lack of available educational materials for students. Digital talking books or e-text books are generally too expensive and are only available in English. With only a few copies of Braille text books available in mainstream schools, visually-impaired students have to depend on reading partners to read text books aloud. The students’ dependency on oral learning also puts them at a disadvantage for employment, as most lack writing skills and are unable to operate a computer. Dipendra is bridging this gap by creating affordable screen reading software in local languages and promoting the use of DAISY technology throughout South Asia. This standard allows people with print disabilities to access content through more convenient and affordable formats, such as the Internet. Based on the premise that computer technology was not meant only for the wealthy, Dipendra has changed the way people with print disability read and write. Accessible multimedia is ideal for people with disabilities as well as for the general public to share information and knowledge world wide. The technology is now being introduced in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal as well as India, which provides the exciting challenge of working in 22 languages as well as amongst vast geographical and cultural diversities. Dipendra is deeply dedicated to continue using technology as a catalyst to support the global sharing of human knowledge in the information society, and because of his focus on low-cost and open source technology, his work is highly replicable.
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