UPDATE: WE HAVE MOVED TO BLOGSPOT.

Hi

this is important. wordpress and its stellar user interface has convinced us to move this blog to the blogspot domain.

You will now find us at www.eshabraille.blogspot.com

See you there !

Theater Workshop at Copal Partners, Gurgaon

The best thing about Staged Encounters is that it’s a laugh riot.

Sample this:

How will we know its evening?

Ask the rooster, he was the one who told us about the morning.

 

Or this:

Beta, will you donate your eyes?

Wait papa, let me ask Pinky. (his gf)

 

When you spend 3 hours laughing, it does a world of good to your health. 

The Theater workshop at Copal Partners was conducted in 2 batches – On 19^th and 20^th July, 2012

Lots of unique things about this workshop :

2 Friends of Esha volunteered to be co-trainers and experienced this workshop for the first time. Thank you, Ayesha and Smitha 🙂

The members of the first batch loved the trainer so much that the next day, when Raju went back for the second batch, the first batch had a gift waiting for him. We were all so touched. This was the first time that a batch actually thought of buying something for Raju.

It is very common to find people laughing their hearts out in Staged Encounters. But for the first time, we also saw people crying openly. Yes, in an office. That was a never before moment for Esha.

Parul (the HR manager from Copal Partners) just summed it up best :

Didn’t know how easily a small 3 hour workshop can bring so much appreciation for
life, vision and just living.

The Economist – April 2012 – UBS ad on the center spread – What a great idea!

Braille advertisement on the centerspread of The Economist – April 2012

It was a special call from a Friend of Esha.

“i want you to see something.”

The “seeing” happened a good 2 months later. But what a sight it was!

In its April 2012 edition, The Economist had a centrespread advertisement – of UBS. And it was in Braille.

Yes, all those copies, printed with a Braille centrespread.

Thank you, Jai Mehta, for showing it to us.

Its funny what an idea can do.. it makes you wonder why we cant do this more often – make ads accessible to everyone. If the Economist can bind braille and non braille pages together, why cant more magazines (and advertisers) do it?

It was an eye opener. Apparently, UBS learnt a lot from Louise Braille. And we learnt a lot from UBS.

Page 1 of Life 365 in Pune today!

Suchismita and i got in touch last week. And i loved the way she has developed the story!! reading through this story was such a pleasure. Thank you, Suchismita!

And thank you, life365, for putting our work on Page 1. I really hope a lot more people hear about braille cards and the audio library, and more importantly, that they benefit from it.

linking to this awesome article..

http://forbesindia.com/article/ideas-opinions/businesses-for-the-poor/33156/1

1500 files now!

It has been a really long journey from 1400 to 1500 files. Primarily because the database could not be uploaded for the longest time. Therefore, it is with a sigh of relief that one shares the news – the DB is now updated and current. And now that we have a temporary fix on how to keep the database current, we can focus on content generation again.  🙂

satyameva jayate on disability

This week’s Satyameva Jayate focused on disability, and on how to use that disability as a strength and not a weakness.

We at Esha believe its one of the best productions on the subject. It talks without talking down. It expresses, and it entertains.

Do watch. Here.

The new Indian copyright act and clabil

On may 22 this year, a historic amendment was made to the Indian copyright act. Now, it is legal to make copies for the use of the visually challenged. Can u imagine what that means for the sheer access to knowledge resources? At clabil, of course, it means E can now make a wealth of knowledge available to the blind without violating the law. That means the world to us at clabil. Thank you, to all the activists who worked and lobbied relentlessly to make it happen.

Clabil is going to be a very busy place this year.
   🙂

Application beta testing

Hi iPhone users,

Blind sight, a small R&D firm in Berkeley, is developing an iPhone application that can detect and speak out text – be it a sign around you or a handout you need to identify. The application uses the built in camera to capture the area the phone is pointed at. It’s patented text detection algorithm analyzes the video stream and tells you whether there is text or not. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and VoiceOver will do the rest and speak the text that was detected – all within seconds.

You can be the first to use text detection and recognition in your day-to-day life before anyone else!

Sign up here if you are interested (participation is limited to 50 users): http://blindsight.com/handsight/beta-signup/

the esha summer project is back!

Last year, a lot of you good people sat and recorded at home on hot, humid summer days. Those

recordings are now here – www.braillecards.org/audio.htm

This year again, the Esha Summer Project is being run. This summer, make a difference to someone. Read for a visually challenged person.

The specific content that we need this year is:

1. Learn English from Indian languages – please pick up small stories and read one line in the

Indian language, and then the same line in English. This helps our children pick up behavioral

English from their vernacular.

2. Wiki in Indian languages – We have hindi. Please read out Wikipedia or other articles in Indian

languages.

3. Educational notes: We cannot convert books till the new Copyright Act is passed. In the interim,

please do convert your notes into audio.

How can you help?

1. Record. This is a detailed tutorial on how to record.

2. Spread the Word.

Thank you!