Production of DAISY standard accessible reading materials for the students with print disability of grade 1-10 of Bangladesh

According to the findings of WHO and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS, 2011), approximately four million people are visually impaired in Bangladesh. Furthermore, approximately 27% (UNESCO UIS, 2017) of people in Bangladesh are illiterate or low literate who are considered as print disable. Accessible information and reading materials have not been available to this group. However, the government and non-government/private organizations provide a range of school services and inclusive education programs for blind and partially sighted students. Although some of the organizations are using audio-books as a supplementary education materials, but there were no accessible reading materials for the students with visual impairments. Considering the situation, YPSA, along with Access to Information program (a2i), Prime Minister’s Office by the technical support of WIPO, Accessible Books Consortium, DAISY consortium and GAATES has produced DAISY digital multimedia books, Accessible E-books, Digital Braille Books for the student of grade 1 to 10 which are much accessible and cost effective than the regular paper books for the students with visual disabilities, print disabilities and learning disabilities. The project converted all the text books into DAISY multimedia format, which can be converted further into DAISY full text full audio text books, Braille and accessible e-books from the source DAISY files. The digital text books are accessible for all including the students with visual disabilities, print disabilities and learning disabilities. The Honorable Prime Minister of Bangladesh formally launched the initiative and distributed the books among the students with visual impairments. Now all learners can get free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes (SDG Target 4.1). Also, education facilities became child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, inclusive and effective learning environments for all (SDG Target 4.a) towards quality education. The DAISY multimedia books have opened new avenues for the students to harness the accessible educational resources for learning. It can certainly improve the level of competency of the students with visual impairments, remove them from being information dark, and make them ready to work as human resources.