Technology driven innovations

Must the blind be segregated from the normal education process and suffer the consequences of segregation? Can they be trained to read the same printed books that the sighted use? Biotechnology and brain research will eventually give fingertip sight to the blind, who have to be prepared for the future now.IT TAKES some preparation before a sighted person can read the Braille script of the blind with your fingertips. My preparations took about two weeks. Then I went and purchased two junior school textbooks from the National Association for the Blind's Sir J. Duggan Braille press in Worli, Mumbai. The two bulky books cost me only Rs.11. When I stepped out of the press I prayed that God give a long life to all those who make donations to such institutions.

The preparations went thus. Whenever I was waiting at a bus stop or on a railway platform I would feel the coins in my trouser pocket and try to identify them.

This wasn't difficult, since coins are of different shapes and sizes. Then I set out to identify the sides of the coins which have the value embossed on one side and the Ashoka pillar on the other.

I purchased some children's alphabet books which had one or two large letters per page and an accompanying word and picture, i.e., `C', `Cat, and illustration of a cat.

With practice I could distinguish, by touch, between blank and printed spaces. The finger roving over the page would come to a halt. I would open my eyes to note that the finger rested on a printed portion, which had a different feel from the blank space around it.

With some more such creative experiments, I was much more confidentof my learning, and this feeling of "Eureka!" was simply great. Now I was ready to tackle Braille.

I acquired a sheet of paper, from Mr. Ketan Kothari, Manager of the Braille press, which had Roman Braille alphabet on one side and Devanagari on the other. He insisted that learning to read Braille at my age was impossible. Since I was adamant, he gave me the alphabet sheet. It took me about an hour to memorise the Roman Braille. Over the next few days I practised writing it. Then I purchased two Braille textbooks and practised sight- reading and finger-reading the dot text.

I am not fluent in reading Braille with my fingers. But it doesn't matter. I know I can do it. The purpose of the exercise was not to acquire the ability to read Braille. It was to determine if Braille is necessary at all. The larger question was whether the blind needed to be segregated from the normal education process and also suffer the psychological consequences of segregation. And, therefore, can the blind be trained to read with their fingers the same printed books that the sighted use? That would bring the blind into the mainstream and end their minority status as objects of charity.

I believe that it can be done. It is a step-by-step process, beginning with the technology that is available today. Eventually, biotechnology and brain research will combine to give `sight', or neural camera, at the fingertips in a couple of decades. But for that, the preparations at the early school level have to begin now.

My next experiments dealt with reading embossed letters of the alphabet. I got large-type printouts of the alphabet, placed them face down on a rubber mat, and embossed them with the help of a ball pen. The results were crude, of course. Nevertheless, I discovered that I could identify the letters with my fingertips. The conclusion was that the blind could be taught to read embossed letters of the Roman, Devanagari and other scripts. They do not have to isolate themselves from the rest of society by restricting themselves to the embossed dots of the Braille script.

There are two ways of embossing letters - physical and chemical. The physical way is currently used in preparing Braille books. A thick sheet of paper is punched from one side so that dots stand out on the other side. This can be done with normal letters too. If the embossed portion is made to touch an inked plate during the process, the letters will be inked.

A modified form of screen-printing can also be used. This will enable any sighted teacher, without special training as is now required, to read the same text with her eyes that the blind student is reading with her fingers.

The chemical process requires the use of special ink. The sheets are printed in the same way as normal books. But the sheets are then sent through a warmer, which makes the ink boil and congeal.

The letters processed thus will rise slightly above the surface and can be easily felt. These processes will enable the printing press to print books for the blind by merely attaching a warmer at the end of the printing process and use the special ink.

Embossed letters had been tried earlier, before the Braille script caught on. But those were primitive times in terms of teaching and learning technologies, brain and eyes research, communications, and much else that had to wait the arrival of micro, nano and biotechnologies as well as computers for data analyses. Besides, the blind and their teachers were isolated; now they are globalised. Braille was the simplest technological solution available then (Louis Braille's first book appeared in 1827). If a technological solution survives for more than a century, it indicates lack of innovation in that area.

In the Braille books that I acquired, the dot letters are printed in large size, what would be 36 points in normal print or half an inch in height. This is to enable the fingers to identify the locations of the dots on the six-dot format. The dividing spaces between the dots are as important as the dots themselves. It is the space between them that gives significance to the dots. If the dots are too close, then the spaces between them cannot be identified; and the Braille letters become unreadable. The Braille alphabet reflects the reality the blind face outside books. With their sticks (or extended hands) they probe for dots (obstacles) and then move in the spaces between them.

This is the opposite of the necessary conditions for `viewing' by sighted people. In a dot-matrix printer, television or computer screen, and printed photographs, the closer the dot (pixels) the greater is the clarity of the printed matter or visual. For the sighted, there is continuity; the blind have to rely on discontinuity.

Embossed letters -- 36-point size -- will start the process of bringing continuity in the lives of the blind. This process can be initiated by introducing embossed Roman or Devanagari script in primary schools for the blind. Initially, the children can be made to learn both the Braille dot script and the normal embossed script. I believe that children will take faster to the normal script than they do now to the Braille dots. Blind children and their sighted friends will be able to read the same books. That would be the beginning of the end of isolation of the blind; they would move towards integration or continuity.

Meanwhile, preparations for my next set of experiments are on. I am studying colours. The aim is to see if I can identify colours with my fingertips. That will mean sensitising the fingers so much that they can distinguish between the radiations emitted by various colours. Since this is too subtle an experiment, I don't expect it to succeed in my case.

But I am visualising a finger attachment which, when passing over a coloured surface, will convert the radiation signals into sound patterns and also announce the colour as `red', `blue', `green' etc. The blind will then be able to enjoy the `feel' of colourful illustrations, which can be accommodated in their books. This may eventually lead to identifying the colour spot in the brain, which can be activated by the sound of colour radiation to produce a personal son et lumiere in a blind person's brain.

Once the integration of the blind with the sighted happens, the next stage will automatically follow. The blind will demand sight. Most certainly they should be able to feel a better sense of their sight within a couple of decades. It will happen. Current research on the most amazing and complex piece of matter in the universe -- the brain -- is leading to technologies, which will enable modifications of brain parts or direct access to them.

There are two possibilities. The first is a sort of digital camera attachment for fingertips. The camera signals will be carried by fingertip nerve connections to that part of the brain, which identifies shapes.

When a sighted person sees something, the brain interprets the image projected on the retina. Similarly, when a blind person `feels' the shapes, the brain interprets the touch signals. The fingertip attachment will enable the blind to see or read the shapes of whatever their fingers move over.

The second possibility is that bio-engineered mini cameras will replace defective eyeballs. Experiments to attach cameras directly to the brain are already showing some success. It will be a delightful irony if the brain research and related technologies advance so much that the blind can get perfectly manufactured bionic eyes with built-in tele and micro lens options, while the sighted have to cope with eyes deteriorating with age, alcohol, diabetes and excess of exposure to computer screen.

To make this dream a virtual reality, the blind must also start thinking on making Braille obsolete. They must take to the alphabets of the sighted. The beginning of the age of the `sighted blind' can be made at the Sir J. Duggan Braille Press where I initiated my search.

DILIP RAOTE

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