Technology made available to the visually impaired!

A WHOLE new world has opened up for Kalpesh Rawal and many others like him. A visually impaired student, he was facing a tough time keeping himself abreast of the latest in the world of information technology as the audio cassettes and Braille books provided by Blind People’s Association were just not enough. But ISRO’s EDUSAT project will help him envision his future and prepare him to reach his goals. The unique network configuration developed by ISRO will help deliver live audio for blind students and even enable the transfer and printing of audio data files with the help of Braille printer. This will help supply of the latest information in the form of data files to the students, which can be referred whenever required.
The network functions in two distinct but independent modes — data broadcast and audio broadcast. In data mode, the sender’s (teacher) instructions are automatically stored in a file at each and every receiving unit (classroom) through the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) mode. While in audio mode, live audio instructions are transmitted to the students.
‘‘Till now, students had no other option except books and audio cassettes, contents of which have never been updated. With the EDUSAT project, we will be able to provide latest information on any topic via audio and printed format to the students,’’ said Jassubhai Kavi of BPA adding, ‘‘Even the classroom lectures can be recorded in the form of audio data files which can be transmitted later.’’
He said, ‘‘Students in the State will be greatly benefitted as many professors and experts from across the globe come down to BPA to take lectures. The network will help transmission of these lectures.’’
Kavi further added, ‘‘Talks on several issues are regularly conducted at Ahmedabad Management Association and other institutes. We can record it and later send across to students through EDUSAT. The audio medium in particular is a boon for blind students.’’

Ranchhod Soni, faculty at BPA said, ‘‘Students will be able to listen to the science lectures prepared by experts. This was not possible earlier.’’

For the initial phase, ISRO has set up one transmitting end at the BPA Vastrapur and 10 receiving ends across similar institutes in Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Sayla and other places. The network will be inaugurated on August 30. In the second and final phase, 15 more institutes will be connected through this transmitting end.


EDUSAT is primarily meant for providing connectivity to schools, colleges, and higher levels of education and also to support non-formal education.

‘‘It’s new and unique. It would be of immense benefit for students in terms of obtaining computer education,’’ said ISRO’s Development Education and Communication Unit (DECU) director B S Bhatia. ‘‘It took us about three months to conceptualise and connect institutes.’’