International

Tiflolibros – A virtual library

For retired doctor Edgardo Etchevarria, reading was a lifelong habit until retinal infection took away his sight 13 years ago.

“I wasn’t practicing medicine any-more and reading was the last thing I had in life,” Etchevarria said, lamenting the years after darkness closed in. Now 83, the voracious reader who tackled Homer’s Odyssey at age 10 is hitting the books again thanks to Tiflolibros, Latin America’s virtual library for the blind. The service sends out email files that can be read out by synthetic voice software on the user’s computer.

Named after Tiflos, an island where the blind were banished in Greek mythology, and the Spanish word for books, the Buenos Aires-based library was the first online library for the blind ever created and is the largest of its kind. It serves some 3,000 people in 40 countries.

Library co-founder Marta Traina said Tiflolibros has grown since its launch in 1999 to house some 20,000 works in Spanish, from bestsellers like the Harry Potter series and Tom Clancy thrillers to children’s books. “Just as ordinary libraries respond to the varied interests of their readers, among our 3,000 users, there are people to many backgrounds and interests,” Traina said at Tiflolibros’ headquarters, where employees scan new titles into the system each day. “Some want to read crime novels, others esoteric works, still others philosophy, psychology and even children’s literature.”

After registering and submitting proof of visual impairment, users can search by genre, title or author for books that then are emailed to them as coded files that computers can convert to speech using technology developed by co-founder and blind programmer Andre Dure.

The service gives access to people who are not fluent in the Braille system of reading, and allows for large stores of titles to be converted to audio far quicker than traditional audio books. Dure said the encryption also helps Tiflolibros, a non-profit, stay within fair-use limits and avoid potential copyright issues.

Source:Visually impaired go online for blind library. Asian Age, Daily, New Delhi, 7 May 2007.

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Miles Hilton-Barber completes epic flight

Miles Hilton-Barber, touched down in Sydney to end an epic 21,725-km flight by microlight aircraft from London. He had landed in Ahmedabad in April to refuel and rest.

Miles, 58-year-old father of three, braved snowstorms, freezing temperatures and torrential downpours during his 54-day journey under the supervision of a sighted co-pilot.   

“I’ve wanted to be a pilot since I was a kid. Now I’m totally blind and I’ve had the privilege of flying more than halfway around the world,” said Hilton-Barber, who lost his eyesight to a hereditary condition about 20 years ago. Miles hopes that the trip will raise $ 2.5 million (Australian) for the charity Seeing is Believing, which works for the prevention of blindness in developing countries.

He took to the skies from Biggin Hill air base in South London on March 7 in a microlight aircraft which looks like a cross between a tricycle and a motorized hang-glider with the aid of an audio device that reads out navigational information such as air speed and altitude.

Mr. Hilton-Barber has also conquered Mount Kilimanjaro and Mont Blanc, run marathons in the Sahara and Gobi deserts, and even attempted to reach the South Pole, hauling a sledge over 400 km of Antarctic ice.

Source: Epic flight by visually disabled pilot. The Hindu, Daily, New Delhi, 1 May 2007.

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