Talk to the blind

Award winners who won the digital talking book competition.

Creating digital talking books can help the blind pursue extensive study.

This has been proven by a group of Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT) students, who won a competition on Thursday by choosing a Buddhist Jataka tale in their storytelling.

Besides the unique content, the winners impressed the judges with the use of sounds, tonal voices and Thai traditional music to beat 113 other groups in the contest, the first of its kind.

Worthwhile for the blind

"One strength of this work is our ability to create images in listeners' minds, which is very worthwhile for the blind," said Sudarat Soonthorn, one of the threemember RMUTT team.

The team utilised the Jataka story's ethical potential, which they thought was interesting, inspiring and memorable.

Sudarat also expressed appreciation that her team chose the canonical tale as their theme, saying that she thought it was useful and timeless and could be put into practice today. "The blind also need guidance in terms of ethics like ordinary people do," she added.

Sudarat said that it was necessary that ethics should be included in books for the blind, although only a few people realised this.

In their work, the three members, including Chawid Hinngern and Anan Lompan, used normal voice tones during general acts and soft tones during lighthearted ones, while high and low pitches were used for exciting parts.

The competition, held jointly by the Health Promotion for People with Disabilities Programme (HPPD) and Ulife magazine, is aimed at promoting the Digital Accessible Information System (Daisy). HPPD had introduced the internationally operated Daisy system in Thailand early this year.

"It's not only about reading," said Rujira Songkla, Ratchasuda College's Braille code specialist, who was one of the three judges. She pointed out the use of voice, which really matters when creating digital talking books, and the wining team's fine description and interesting portrayal of ethics from the Jataka story.

HPPD senior official Articha Naravorawat called on young people and students to help in the project by reading textbooks to be made into digital talking books for the blind.