Brazilian who are blind or suffer from other visual deficiencies will gain a new tool to enhance their access to information and culture.
The tool is the Letter System, a computer program developed by the Federal Data Processing Service (Serpro) to transform any written text on the computer into an audio version.
The proposal is simple: The computer program has a data bank with the pronunciation of every syllable, as well as punctuation marks. When the text goes into the computer, the program relates the sounds to what is written, and the computer itself transforms the text into an audio version.
The person responsible for the finalization and distribution of the program, Eduardo Esteves, explained that the Letter System will be distributed free of charge to schools and institutions for the sight-impaired. With it, they themselves will quickly be able to transform any kind of text.
“With it, we are filling a gap in our educational system, namely, that the sight-impaired are excluded from culture and education. A visually deficient child will be able to hear a book, listen to a story, without the need for someone else to read the story or the book to him or her. Another point is that it drastically reduces the need to invest in braille editions,” he said.
The preliminary version of the Letter System was completed last week. The Serpro intends to initiate distribution of the computer program by the end of August.
Agência Brasil
