Everyday Life Information for the People with Special Needs: A Technological Approach towards Mass Literacy

Access to everyday life information of a person with special needs seems to experience frequent hindrances in the form of Way of Life and Mastery of Life since a person of such difficulties finds the traditional mode of delivery of information from public libraries in West Bengal insufficient in getting the required information for lifelong learning. Modern day technology comes as a remedy to this. Everyday life information seeking of twenty four people with special needs of the existing six public libraries in Chanditala II and adjunct blocks of Hooghly District in West Bengal have been studied in the present investigation using micro-moment timeline interview and survey method. Recommendations have been made exploring various apps-developing platforms such as Android, Apple, and even search engines like Google etc. to endeavour to reach the zenith of mass literacy. ChromeVox, Google search through Google Voices etc. offered by Google; Text-to Speech apps offered by Android; AccessTech, Proloquo2Go, iConverse, iCommunicate etc. offered by Apple for blind and visually impaired people are some of them that can be used in public libraries in order to smoothen the everyday life information searching experience of persons with special needs like never before. DAISY Digital Talking Book, Audio Books, books procured from the Organizations such as Learning Ally (U.S.) can be made accessible in order to secure the lifelong learning of people with special needs in public libraries.