Middle East, Misc., November 3 2017
People with vision disabilities could soon have access to the world’s largest digital library which would also allow them to download and print braille.
Benetech, a Silicon Valley company has recently begun working with Dubai Police and individual members to join its Bookshare library to give people with vision disabilities access to literature. The company plans to eventually expand across the Middle East.
A spokesperson of Benetech stated that their aim for the Middle East is to find people who would like to build a library with all their training materials and manuals that will be accessible to those with print disabilities. These could be from any industry ranging from transportation, airlines, banking, insurance or even advertising.
The non-profit organisation has more than 500,000 books from preschool through college in various disciplines that can be downloaded to an embosser machine that prints the content in braille.
The library also converts text to speech and can convert math, images and video into formats that can be downloaded onto a computer, telephone or tablet used by a person with disability.
The company also trains people to use its software and convert books into accessible formats.
Benetech is currently working with the Dubai Police to make its legal manuals print accessible for staff who encounter difficulties with reading.
