LSR is haven for visually-impaired

Hurdles don't disappear for visually challenged students by merely gaining admission into a DU college.

Hurdles don't disappear for visually challenged students by merely gaining admission into a DU college. For many, it remains a long and tough struggle to get to college and then find enough support in terms of academic material in Braille.

HT Image

Lady Shri Ram College (LSR) has decided to make things easier for its students by installing special software on dedicated computers in the library. LSR will become the second college in Delhi University to extend the facility to its students.

St Stephen's is the only other college that extends the benefit of Jaws — a software that translates words being typed on a computer into audible output — to its students.

"We have a dozen students who suffer from some kind of visual impairment. While several students residing in the hostel have Jaws on their personal computers, the college is procuring the software mainly for the benefit of the students from underprivileged who cannot afford to pay for it," said Neelam Malhotra, faculty member at LSR.

Malhotra says the college plans to get both Hindi and English versions of the software to enable students in any discipline to study independently.

While many colleges like St Stephen's and IP College have extensive Braille libraries, very few institutions actually have adequate academic infrastructure for visually challenged students.