PU installs scanners for visually impaired

Chandigarh, October 30

Panjab University (PU) today installed two scanners for visually impaired students of the varsity.

According to PU librarian Dr Raj Kumar, with the help of scanners, visually disabled students can scan books, notes, magazines and other study material. After scanning, it gets stored in their laptop or computer in the PDF format. Then the text could be converted into audio book. The total cost of the scanners with software is around Rs 1.3 lakh.

There is an option to convert the scanned part into MP3 format and hear it on one’s mobile phone also.

“There has been a demand from the students in this regard,” he said. The earlier software being employed by the PU to scan books was not accurate and it did not have the option of Hindi audio. 

“We have been demanding it for the last two years. The earlier software used by the PU to scan books did not have 100 per cent accuracy,” said Shubham Sharma, a post graduate student of political science who is 100 per cent visually impaired. “Earlier, we were going to Delhi University for the material,” said Manish Chauhan, who is 75 per cent visually impaired and a student of political science.

“In future we will develop e-library for these students,” said Raj Kumar.

“There are 20 visually impaired students on the campus. We have got these two scanners after a struggle of two years,” said Jatinder Arora, who is a law student and is 50 per cent visually impaired. It was Arora who had spearheaded the demand.  

Regarding other demands, he said that we wanted the PU to give us bigger font size question papers and be allowed to take exams through laptop or computer.—TNS