I have just finished attending a small seminar on the ‘Right To Read’ campaign held at NUJS, Kolkata, India. Inclusive Planet, Book Bole, Center for Internet and Society among others sponsored and supported the event. Some stimulating topics worth ruminating upon came up:

1.) Books in the audio format might not be in consonance with Right to ‘Read’ because reading the text is an entirely different experience vis-a-vis listening to someone read it out. So Braille has to remain a priority.

2.) How to incorporate diagrams and graphs in the audio version of books?

3.) A book recorded by say an American/ European gentleman might not be of much use for student living in Asia/ India because the pronunciation and accent will be too alien for him or her to understand what is being read out.

Still, it is a laudable effort indeed.
Wishing all the best to the Inclusive Planet guys!

Tanuj Kalia