IIT-Guwahati develops software for visually handicapped

Guwahati, July 18 (UNI) The students of Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati (IIT-G) have designed a software, 'Chakshu' for visually handicapped students to enable them to pursue computer related education and career.

About 20 visually handicapped students of Basistha Blind School and Montfort School in Guwahati have tried out the technology and the designers claimed that they found the software user-friendly.

M Tech students- Uday Trivedi and Arindam Choudhury- carried out the project under Professors. Pradip Kumar Das, Jatindra Kumar Deka and Shivashankar B Nair of the department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Assistant Professor Pradip Kumar Das said, ''Microsoft Reader was the basic guideline that was used in designing the software. This has been designed keeping in mind the difficulties regularly faced by the blind people while working on a computer.'' He said the software was very user-friendly and the blind people could use an ordinary ASCII keyboard with the software and do away with the Braille enabled one.

''The software also includes a newspaper reader which deals with various columns like politics, sport, entertainment etc,'' he added.

Dr Das informed that the product was available free of cost on the internet. After filling up a feedback form having used the software for a month, the IIT-G would provide a password for further use of the software, he added.

Dr S B Nair said the Social Justice ministry had been approached for financial aid. He said, ''The software is very easy to use and after a few tries, it becomes easy to type out long articles and it even maintains accounts. Blind schools in Gujarat and Maharashtra have also tried out the free version of ''Chakshu''.

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