A Vision for the Blind

So simple that anyone could have thought of it? True. And Jha was just anyone when he began working with the visually impaired. ‘‘Two years ago, I came across a talking signal at the BPA crossroads, which announ-ced, ‘Blind men crossing the road, please stop your vehicles at the stop-line’. I walked into BPA and learnt that the signal was imported for Rs 7 lakh. I told them the same thing could be manufactured here for Rs 25,000,’’ says Jha, a technical assistant with the Physics department of Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar.

Before that day, Jha had never stepped encountered the visually impaired, except casually. ‘‘My visit made me realise how difficult life is for them,’’ says the physics (electronics) graduate. ‘‘I thought that if I do have a gift for electronics, I should use it to make their life simpler.’’

Jha’s work began with the notice-board, where he noticed that only one person could read a notice at a time. On Jha’s suggestion, the school installed an automatic announcer that repeats the notice during breaks between classes. ‘‘It was an instant hit,’’ says Tarak Luhar, principal of the Adult Training Centre of the school.

Jha’s next project was an electronic map of Gujarat, which had a buzzer going off the instant a student’s finger crossed the borderlines. It helped students learn the location of the major cities. ‘‘We used the map as an experiment. Since the students responded to it so well, it has now been included in the syllabus,’’ says Luhar.

It was during one of his regular visits to the school that Jha learnt about the problems faced by Braille teachers. ‘‘Conventionally, only one student can be taught to read at a time,’’ says J B Kavi, principal of the secondary section of the BPA’s School of the Visually Impaired. ‘‘When we let Jha in onto this, we knew he was the right person for the job, but even we didn’t expect him to come up with something so simple.’’

The multi-lingual Braille Language Laboratory — officially christened Lodge Fellowship Braille Language Laboratory, after its sponsor Freemasons of Lodge Fellowship, when it was inaugurated on February 2 — consists of a master panel for the teacher and Braille pads for 10 students (all of which costs Rs 1.5 lakh). If a student needs help, he can press the ‘call’ button on his pad, sending audio and visual signals to the teacher. It also makes for one-to-one communication without disturbing others present.

Though at present the facility is limited to English and Gujarati, Jha is confident that with a little modification in the programming, it can help teach any language in the world.

‘‘This is a great technique, it’s made language-teaching so easy,’’ says Pathan Rahim Khan, visually impaired himself and a teacher for 22 years. ‘‘Paper Braille would be affected by repeated touching and could not be used after a while. Also, after learning one letter or word, a student would have to wait for ages before learning another as the teacher would have moved on to another student. The new technique takes care of these inadequacies.’’

Jha’s invention, which took him all of six months to perfect, makes it possible even for those who do not know Braille to teach the language. The master panel has been designed for self-learning, so students can use it too, he adds.

On December 3, World Disabled Day, last year, Jha received the National Award for Welfare of Persons with Disabilities for his invention from President Abdul Kalam along with Rs 50,000 in cash. He has already given half the amount to the BPA and plans to donate the rest soon. ‘‘This is not the end, just the beginning. As of now, it’s only possible for the teacher to write and the students to read. I am trying to make it possible for the students to write and the teacher to read,’’ says Jha.