Introducing SUGAMYA

PUSTAKALAYA

Dipendra ManochaPresident, DAISY Forum of India

CHALLENGES• 53 lakhs Visually Impaired (Census 2011)• 1.2 crore Print Disabled

Visually impaired + Learning disabilities + Physical disabilities that impact reading of normal print book

• Only 50,000 reached By all government and non-government libraries and accessible book services and struggling just to provide basic text books to school students

• <1% books available in accessible formats Less than 1 % of published materials in India ever get converted in format that persons with print disabilities could read themselves)

• TTS available for few languages only Good quality text to speech is available only for English, Hindi, Tamil and kannada languages on Windows computers. On Android it is available for Hindi and Bengali languages only.

• OCR available only for Hindi, Marathi, Tamil and Kannada(software to scan books)

DAISY FORUM OF INDIA• Network of stakeholders • Mission: End book famine for persons who cannot read regular print• Government organisations, not for profit organisations, educational

institutions, public libraries and Disabled People’s organisations are decision makers and form the national vision and mission of the DFI• Technology education institutions, research institutions are

development partners• International organisations, CSR wings of corporations and publishers

join as supporters to implement vision and mission of the DFI by supporting or developing products and services.

COMPONENTS OF HOLISTIC SOLUTION• KIT: Assistive technology and reading equipment required to read accessible

format books• CARRIER: Distribution system and infrastructure that can reach out to persons

with print disabilities• CONTENT: Production of accessible format books

IN SUPPORT WE NEED• Training to end users, VI organisations, libraries and publishers• Enabling laws and policies• Solutions to fill technology gaps

GOALS FOR 3 YEARS• Ten lakh persons with print disabilities should be able to get or retrieve books

of their own choice in their language and read them with eyes, ears and fingers in all states and union territories of India• All text books of all classes in all Indian Languages of school will be available

in accessible e-text, audio and readable in braille on first day of new batch• Three books for every paper of university syllabus will be available in

accessible e-text format from all major publishers.• Top 1000 Indian best seller inclusive of Indian Language books will be

available in accessible format• Top 100 newspapers or periodicals are available in accessible and easy to read

format even for senior citizens

SUGAMYA PUSTAKALAYA CONTENT DELIVERY• Directly connected to the Kit in the hands of the user that includes

computer, tablet, smart phone, DAISY player, braille display and braille printer• Support multi-mode delivery to address diversity• Capability to accommodate intermediaries such as public libraries,

university or school libraries, ICT service centres for last mile connectivity with end users

SUGAMYA PUSTAKALAYA CONTENT COLLECTION AND CONVERSION• Collection of all books that are available today in accessible formats• Connectivity with other national and International resources for

accessible books with legal compliances and copy protections and safeguards for digital content.• Capability to receive content feeds from publishers and deliver the

same to users in accessible format of their choice.

PARTNERS• Department of empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, Government of

India• 129 stake holder organisations from all over India registered as members

of the DAISY Forum of India• Bookshare, the largest international online database of accessible digital

books• Powered by TCS Access∞

www.daisyindia.orgwww.sugamyapustakalaya.in