Audio Books
Why Audio Books ?
Visually Impaired students depend on Braille Textbooks to study. There are 30 million visually impaired students present all over India & there is only 21 Braille Press present across India, which are not capable of supplying Braille books to these blind students. In Odisha, there are more than 2 lakh visually impaired people & almost 30,000 are students (class 1 to Ph.D. level). Braille books are not available for college students at all. Only schools students can access Braille books from their library. So thousands of students are unable to study due to a shortage of books. Many people request their friends to read the book for them loudly or to record it for them, but it’s tough to get a friend who will be always there with them. Few people charge a lot because it takes too much time. Some people try to record the class lectures but they are too much noisy & sometimes the teachers also don’t allow them to record their lectures & we all know in our state teachers never finish all courses in time & that’s why people have to go for extra tuitions which became another burden for the visually challenged.
What We4You does?
We4You is converting all books into Audio format by engaging more than 1000 volunteers. Whoever approaches us for any extra books, we also record it for them. We never charge money because a maximum of them are financially not stable. As we all know Blind people have a sharper memory than us, so they can easily memorize the things & perform well in exams. Few people in different schools & colleges are securing 80% by accessing our audio books. So this is a solution for giving them the same facility as normal students. Our Audio Books can't replace the Braille books 100% but These audio books can make lives by providing access to education. We have few Audio recording set up in Bhubaneswar which are being used to produce Audio Books. We have more than 1000 volunteers who are involved with Audio recording & editing. They are working dedicatedly to produce quality materials. We have volunteers from IIT Bhubaneswar, XIMB & almost from all Engineering colleges present in Bhubaneswar. So we are being able to record books in Odia, Hindi, English, Bengali, Telegu & a few more Indian languages. Recently we have developed AUDIOBOOKs for Chennai & Gurgaon students.
Distribution process
We send the Audio files in DVD cassettes to all schools, colleges, organizations working for visually impaired & to student’s representatives for all areas in post. Students can take the files in a pen drive or Bluetooth also & they can listen to using their mobile phones or MP3 players. We are developing an android app & a website from where the students can directly download the audio files. The main concrete results we expect your support is reaching out to 5 Lac visually impaired students all over India by 2019 and enriching their education system which not only gives them a thorough learning process but also boosts confidence in them for the larger run.
What you does
- Before beginning to record read the page once properly.
- Read Slow at a controlled pace.
- Read clearly. In case of mistake read the sentence again?
- Keep the pitch of your voice a bit high.
- Read the important parts of the book.
- Read Page wise
- Before starting to record put your phone on airplane mode to avoid interferences like tones of calls, notifications, messages, etc.
- Use any software/recorder available in your phone or use the sound recorder available in your phone.
- Follow proper naming for the recorded pages.
- Record in a bedroom, study with no people.
- Record in a proper sitting or comfortable position.
- Record in a room with less sound interference from outside.
- It is recommended to record page-wise or chapter-wise and save.
- Maintain your format of reading throughout the book.
- Do a test recording before starting to record.
- Have warm water nearby and take regular sips
- Transfer the recorded audio files through We Transfer, Google drive or mail.
What you don’ts
- Directly jump to recording and mess up.
- Don’t read too fast.
- Don’t panic/skip the word you read wrong,
- Don’t read at a low pitch as it won’t be audible through headphones.
- Don't skip topics thinking it to be unnecessary.
- Don’t read the pages haphazardly.
- Don't attend phone calls while recording.
- Don’t use any unnecessary voice modulators or regulators.
- Don’t name the audio files randomly.
- Don't record in an empty room to avoid echo.
- Transfer the recorded audio files through We Transfer, Google drive or mail.
- Don't record while sleeping.
- Don’t try recording a lot of pages in just one.
- Avoid noisy breaths, noises of page turns.
- Don't record further until you check the voice modulation, the set up and re recording is fine.
- Don't read with a sore throat or runny nose and cough.
- Don’t use whatsapp messenger for transferring the files.