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ARGENTINA
Digital Library for the Blind
By Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, Mar 13, 2007 (IPS) - Armed with a computer and their passion for
literature, a group of blind people in Argentina have created the first
digital library for Spanish-speaking people who are visually impaired. It
already has some 20,000 volumes and over 3,000 subscribers in 40
countries.
Tiflolibros, as it is named, was created in 1999. It first operated out of
the home of its coordinators, a blind couple who wanted access to books
via their computer. "The project grew, and so did their family, so we
threw them out and kept their apartment," Marta Traina, in charge of
public relations, joked to IPS.
"The library operates in one area, and technical support in another, but
the apartment is getting too small for us," said Traina, delighted about
the growth of the project, which started out as 20 people exchanging a few
titles by e-mail.
The library is made up of "talking books", recorded on compact discs (CD).
They may be listened to on the library computer, but Tiflolibros also
offers a delivery service to its subscribers, who can choose the books
they want and listen to them with whatever technology they prefer:
discman, MP3-player, or an ordinary computer. "These are ideal options for
older people," Traina said.
Members receive their CDs by mail at a cost of less than a dollar apiece.
"They order 10 or 15 titles at a time," she said.
In the past, the visually impaired were reliant on texts in Braille, the
writing system with raised dots that are read by touch, which requires
large amounts of paper, or on other people who had time to read to them.
Then "audio-books", taped on cassettes, became popular.
But information technology has opened up a whole new dimension.
People can now install a screen reader in their computer to check e-mail
and surf the Internet, and there are Braille printers, too. But copyright
screen reader programmes, such as those sold by Adobe or Microsoft, are
too expensive for most.
The problem was solved by André Duré, a blind programmer, who created the
Tiflolector software which encodes a digitalised text, eliminating the
risk of illegal print copies being made. The coded text is read by special
screen readers, so that the books are only available to the blind.
So it is that books on a wide range of subjects by many different authors
are reaching the Spanish-speaking visually impaired. "Lots of publishers
give us their newest books, but there are some who aren't interested.
Perhaps they don't know much about computer science and are afraid that
the digital versions will go into print, and their book sales will
suffer," said Traina.
To get computers to read the books out loud, they must first be scanned
and then read by a voice synthesiser. This method is time-consuming and
error-prone, because the reading equipment does not always understand the
digitalised text properly, and the mistakes have to be corrected.
The couple who coordinate the project, Pablo Leucona and Mara Vilar,
started Tiflolibros by exchanging scanned texts with other visually
impaired people on a mailing list. Everyone shared what they had. Now
there are 80 volunteers in several countries who scan and correct talking
books to add to the library.
The library accepts subscribers with severe or total visual impairment of
any nationality who are interested in books in Spanish. Applicants must
provide a certificate attesting to their disability. Representatives of
institutions for the blind are also allowed to use the library.
There is a similar library in the United States, but it is only for U.S.
citizens, and membership is not free. Traina said that initiatives like
Tiflolibros in other countries would be a welcome development, especially
if they could all connect up so as to increase the number of titles they
could offer.
With time, Tiflolibros has gained credibility and prestige, and a dozen
publishers such as Alfaguara and Sudamericana send it their books, or even
the digital versions. "Sometimes we have the books before they're even in
print," Traina said.
The library has subscribers in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Canada, Chile,
Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany,
Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Spain, Sweden, the United
States, Uruguay and Venezuela. There is also a translation service into
English and German.
Juan Spiraquis, a 50-year-old subscriber, lost his sight 12 years ago due
to diabetes. "What interests me most are medical books about natural
medicine, but there's an endless variety, anything you could possibly
think of," he told IPS.
At first he had difficulty understanding the voice synthesiser but now he
"reads" fast, he said. The screen reader can be set at different speeds,
can be turned back, and can spell out a word on command.
In Argentina, publishing houses give copies of books to organisations that
translate them into Braille. There is no copyright law that deals with
this, but in 2006 the Argentine senate introduced a draft law to amend
intellectual property rights, with a view to exempting texts for the blind
on any kind of support medium. But the new law has not yet been passed.
However, avid readers cannot wait. "Some of my friends have computer
speakers in different parts of the house, and listen to their books while
they are doing other things," Spiraquis described. "Others have one on
their night tables, and they programme the screen reader to switch itself
off," he said.
(END)
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