by BENEFICENT TECHNOLOGY INC
$600,000.00
Donation Goal

Project Details



Increasing Access to Education in India
E-Books for Students in Special Needs and Inclusive Classrooms
Meet Suraj. He is eight years old and in the third standard at the School for Blind Boys in Bhosari, a suburb of Pune, in the Maharashtra state of India. He is passionate about playing cricket and chess and wants to have an elephant for a pet. Benetech's field staff in India recently spent two years working in Suraj's school, providing accessible, digital books via Bookshare. Before the project started, the students were only being read to fifteen minutes per week over a loudspeaker. Since introducing Bookshare, the students have regular instruction in Marathi braille and expanded time to read and listen to stories in their mother tongue on digital devices. Thanks to the availability of accessible books, Suraj's engagement in school, and his love of reading, are rapidly increasing.

Access to knowledge is a basic and transformational human right. All children should have access to the books and learning materials they need to succeed in school and in life. For those who cannot read printed materials due to challenges such as visual impairment or dyslexia, educational opportunities and employability are greatly limited. There is a book famine worldwide for students who have disabilities that impact reading. Benetech's goal is to unlock learning for these students by providing accessible books in vernacular languages.
In India, the need for accessible materials is especially important. Of the 39 million people in the world who are blind, and the 246 million people who are visually impaired, the World Health Organization estimates that 22% live in India. Schools in India for students who are blind are often greatly under-resourced, and many lack even basic materials to provide a quality education. For students with dyslexia and other learning disabilities who are enrolled in government schools, the need for accessible materials that meet their individual learning needs is often not recognized by school administrators.
Benetech, through its Bookshare initiative, has been working in India since 2007 and provides a rich digital library of over 350,000 accessible books available in a range of relevant languages. Of those, 2,300 are in local languages. The collection is available to over 10,600 users in India.
Bookshare materials are:
" accessible, providing audio, large format text, dynamic braille, and karaoke-style synchronized text and audio that allows people with learning disabilities to follow along;
" available for reading on a range of devices including computers, smartphones, low-cost mp3 players, and dedicated assistive technology;
" available in a range of relevant languages, including English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi.
Help Bookshare India Scale to Reach Thousands of Potential Users
Benetech's experienced field staff in India work in 11 states. They partner with local ministries of education, publishers, schools, and disabilities-focused organizations to identify the most important books, including state-approved curricula, to convert into accessible formats. The staff, many of whom are visually impaired themselves, serve as role models, providing training for teachers, parents, and students on how to use accessible books in Bookshare, and to increase broader public awareness of the need for such materials.
In the coming two years, the goal is to triple the size of the accessible book library in local Indian languages and double the number of users in India. For $1,000, five additional books can be added, and for $24 per student or $600,000, the Indian library can be strengthened and expanded to 25,000 students. And that's just the beginning. Find out more and give generously at https://benetech.org/get-involved/give/.



Donation Deadline
Tuesday, Dec 31, 2019

Project Website
https://benetech.org

Project Location
480 S California Ave Ste 201,
PALO ALTO, CA,
94306-1609
India.


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