Kozhikode teen seeks govt. help after Braille textbook delay disrupts studies

A visually impaired teenager from Kozhikode who had to abandon her higher secondary education last academic year because of missing study aids has requested Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan and Education Minister N. Samsudheen to ensure that Braille textbooks are distributed in time this year.

​In a Facebook post on Wednesday (May 20), 16-year-old Aysha Sameeha urged the new government to ensure the timely distribution of Braille textbooks so that she could continue her education. She had to drop out last year when her Braille textbooks failed to arrive, even as the Plus One final exams were approaching in March.

​Last year, she was a Plus One student in the humanities stream at the Calicut Higher Secondary School for the Handicapped, Kolathur. As Braille textbooks were only available up to class 10, she and her family had approached the authorities to procure the necessary books.

​Her father, V.P. Siddique, told The Hindu that they had e-mailed former Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty and others, besides formally applying through the school for the textbooks. The Minister had promised to arrange Braille textbooks for higher secondary students in the State.

​Ms. Sameeha eventually received four Braille textbooks, with the exams just around the corner, and her father was told that the delay was due to printing backlogs. Of the four, she could not use two because they were from an older syllabus, making the family question whether they had been sourced from old surplus stock. “As a parent, it was disheartening to see how demotivated she felt after that,” said Mr. Siddique.

​He added that Ms. Sameeha had used audio study materials, screen-reader programmes, and class notes to study until the final exams but found it difficult to cope without reading material, which she prefers to other mediums.

​Braille textbooks in the State are printed by the Braille press run by the Kerala Federation of the Blind, which only prints textbooks up to Class X. The press functions based on grants and orders issued by the Department of General Education. An official said that if the government raised their grant, which was last updated in 2015, it would have the capacity to print higher education Braille textbooks as well.

​When Ms. Sameeha initially requested the textbooks, she was told that Braille books were not printed past Class X because there were not enough takers. However, Mr. Siddique knew of three other students who had applied along with her daughter.

​Ms. Sameeha and her family have spoken to the local school authorities in Ramanattukara and are awaiting the opening of single-window applications to enrol her. “Aysha really likes reading and aspires to become an English lecturer when she grows up,” said Mr. Siddique.