Interviews on DAISY Talking book usage

BLIND MASSAGEURS OF MONGOLIA STARTED READING DAISY BOOKS

Enhamgalan, age 43, totally blind

“Representing other I have come alone from Hentii aimag. I have been attending a 6-months massagers’ course at the Rehabilitation and Training Center for the Blind, National Federation of the Blind.

I have become blind when grown up and that’s why doing know how to read and write in Braille. However, I am so happy to listen to the audio books brought from the DAISY Talking Books Center of the Ulaanbaatar Public Library.  We were thought how to use a Book Sense device and in the dormitory after the classes, we listen to the Massage Manual and Human Body’s Anatomy every day. It helps me greatly in my studies.

I truly like this equipment as I feel as reading a real book turning the pages, jumping quickly to the subjects and different parts of the book. It is so easy and makes a fun.

When finishing the courses I will leave the BookSense here and return to my province where I will immediately visit the library asking about the possibility of using this kind of services. I also hope to have my own one as I feel it to be like my best friend.”

Erdenebat, 38, totally blind.

Citizen of Ulaanbaatar city, a driver, lost the vision due to the road accidence.

“Before attending the massage courses I didn’t know that such excellent equipment had ever existed. Thanks to this project I have got a confidence that I would successfully complete the courses. I am changing my profession and I was not sure that can become a true massager. I didn’t know the Braille script and wasn’t able to read the manuals written on it. Now I believe in myself because the listening of DAISY books helped me to understand a lot, get deeper knowledge and have clear vision of what is massaging.”

DAISY BOOKS ENLIGHTEN THE FUTURE OF THE STUDENTS OF THE SPECIAL SCHOOL No 116

Angarag-Erdene, age 15, 9^th grade student

Citizen of Ulaanbaatar city has been studying in this school since 2003, lives in the school dormitory.

“Our class has 5 students. I have learned everything how to use the BookSense. I have found brilliant technological advantages of this device. While reading with the BookSense, it is possible to make Bookmarks, the recording is so pure, the memory is huge, makes recording directly from FM radios, goes immediately to the pages, gives a feeling of travelling through the content. BookSense can tell me total time, elapsed time, remaining time, total pages, current pages and other unbelievable opportunities. I wish our school library have some more BookSenses. My dream is to successfully graduate the secondary school and become a good software engineer.”

Batzul, 9^th grade student.

While coming to the school library I looked to the Universe through the Braille and audio books. Now there is a chance to see it via DAISY books which is even easier. I attended the BookSense training classes 3 times, that is why I can operate it very well. I have memorized all the buttons and now can touch them instantly. I wish to study for a musician and composer.

Davaanyam, teacher of Mongolian language and literature. Has been working as teacher to the children with visual and hearing disparities since 1985.

“It is found to be a much more advanced technology compared to the audio that had been used by us. Since November 2010 the BookSense device has been introduced to 80 students of the school. They are so happy to use the new device because it saves time and greatly increases the motivation. The children simply love the BookSenses. The Braille has some advantages as it improves memory and helps to learn concentration. However, thick books like a novel are better to be listened in a DAISY format. It is also uncomparable in bringing the emotions of the content.”

Sanduidemchig, school librarian

“After finishing this school I continued studying in the college for the librarian. I have been working here since 2005. The school library has 18 seats and provides services both to the teachers and students. It has 2,000 books in Cyrillic, approximately 2,000 Braille books and nearly 200 audio books.

Since October 2010 our stock has enriched with 12 DAISY books. I am much happy for the new and progressive technologies being introduced in our library.

Over 50 students were involved in the BookSense training classes. There is a high demand in using it and students are asking to increase the number of DAISY book readers. There are books that should be read by every student of the school. Two DAISY books were included in this list. The Moving Library with 10 more devices, helped us much to learn this new technology”

In the Rehabilitation and Training Center for the Blind

Munhzul, Director

Here are mostly coming people from the provinces and those who have lost the vision at grown up ages. These kinds of people suffer a lot and need a special type of care and re-training. It was a big puzzle how to approach these people as it is not easy to find an appropriate way of teaching. There was time when we read the books ourselves. Then the teachers started using cassettes, CDs and record the manuals. The DAISY book technology has facilitated the work by 100 percent. Also possibility of listening manuals recorded by professional readers and provided via the real-book imitated device with great selection opportunities, highly improves the quality of our training.

If previously the manuals were in shortage, and the trainees had less opportunity to make notes by them, use those notes, now the situation has completely changed and even it is possible for the teachers to make demands to do the homework, if necessary.

The Moving Library from DAISY Talking Books Center of the Ulaanbaatar Public Library improves efficiency to the training process because 10 devices were brought for us here. In future, we would like to have sufficient number of DAISY books readers in our Center.

For more information about PLIP: http://www.eifl.net/plip/
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