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October 23, 2007 16:49 IST
A city-based visually impaired software professional has come out with an 'open source voice-enabled software' based on LINUX system, for the benefit of visually handicapped.
Krishnakant told reporters here that the 'ORCA software' which allowed development of a free (open source) software, reduced the costs as no licence was required.
IT companies were at present reluctant to recruit visually impaired as they had to install proprietory software, the licence of which costs a minimum of Rs 70,000 for each computer, he said.
C Umashankar, managing director, Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu, which was promoting the software, said Rs 500,000 investment was needed to install a proprietory software, to be shared by five visually impaired people. But, using the new software, 22 computers could be installed.
Krishnakant hoped that with the introduction of the new software, there would be a dramatic improvement in the recruitment of visually impaired by IT companies.
The new product had all the facilities similar to any Windows-based software, he said. All business functions and calculations apart from browsing and e-mail facilities were available. It would read not only what appeared on the screen, but also each function carried out by the user.
The software could be modified as per the needs of the user and could be re-distributed, he said. The English accent could be modified, language could be changed and any regional language could be introduced without altering basic programming code.
Detailing his initiative, Krishnakant said he was ridiculed by others when he chose the profession.
"I took it as a challenge and vowed to help all visually impaired people to work on computers", he said.
"My parents admitted me to a regular school in Mumbai, as they did not want me to join a school for the blind", he said, adding he underwent a three-year diploma course in software, after completing graduation in Economics.
Krishnakant said he would be visiting all the states to create awareness about the software.
He has already visited Karnataka and would be going to Gujarat soon.
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