For the first time after its inception Dhaka University is going to open a resource centre for its visually impaired students. The centre will be opened at the DU Central Library soon after the university opens end of this month.

K Fazlur Rahman, librarian, DU Central Library, said once the resource centre is open, 41 visually impaired students from 12 departments and one institute of the university will be able to read brailled books from the library.

"At present the visually impaired students record class lectures and later memorise them. It is their only way of learning," said Dr M Enamul Kabir, country representative of Sightsavers International which provides financial support for the centre.

The centre is equipped with Braille system books, computers with Internet connections, mobile portable devices, Braille printer and some other equipment necessary for visually impaired students. Eight students can use the centre at a time. Ithasa study corner wilh 72 copies of 24 brailled books selected as per requirement of the students.

Braille is a universal language through which visually impaired students can learn.

However, the required manpower to run the resource centre is yet to be recruited, sources said. Four staff are needed to run die centre in two shifts -- morning and evening.

The sources said a proposal has been placed to die university syndicate to pul advertisements in newspapers for the recruitment. Two new staff will be recruited and they will work with two senior existing staff of the library All of them will be trained by Sightsavers to help visually impaired students leant through Braille method.

"The trained staff will compose required parts of a book and then transform them into Braille mediod," said die librarian.

"If anyone needs a particular chapter from a book that was not composed then we will be able to provide it within a very short time depending on the length of the chapter," he said.

Inaugurating the centre, Vice chancellor SMA Faiz said such centre is essential to ensure the access of visually impaired students to quality education.

Dr Kabir told Star City diat it is a right of the visually impaired students to get educational facil-

' iticsjustlikenormalstudents.

| He said the students will be abl e to bro wse In tern et alongsid e reading books. There is a special software to help students recognise computer commands. The students will be given computer trainings so that they can browse Internet.

"Talking computers are arranged for them so that they can recognise the commands through headphones. We are using special software for this," he said.

Dr Kabir put emphasis on preparing students for the job market. "One reason for this skill training and making them computer literate is to prepare them for the job market."

"DU is our primary objective. Our next project would be to

open a similar centre at Chittagong University," he added.

Dr Caroline Harper, chief executive of Sightsavers, said in the inaugural ceremony that visually impaired persons should be educated and turned into human resources. She urged the visually impaired students to make their position in all sections of the society.

Sightsavers International has been working in Bangladesh since 1973 for the prevention of blindness and promotion of the rights of the blind people.

Dr Nazma Kabir, regional director for South Asia and the Caribbean of Sightsavers, was also present at the launching ceremony.