BSI designs medium and message to suit visually-impaired and disabled

BANGALORE, India — The latest production from the Special Audiences Department of the Bible Society of India (BSI) is a Portion targeted specifically at disabled people.

Entitled In Your Life’s Storms Are You Lonely?, the 26-page booklet traces its origins back to a consultation which UBS held on the subject of Bible work among visually-impaired people, in Thailand in March 2001.

The consultation was led by Ingrid Felber-Bischof, UBS Braille Coordinator, and Jon Jeffery, the UBS Planning and Research Consultant.

Among those attending was Dr P I Varghese, who heads the Special Audiences Department of the BSI. India’s vast population of blind and partially-sighted people is estimated at around 11 million, and Dr Varghese’s department has been producing Braille Scriptures and calendars with Bible verses in various Indian languages for many years.

Afterwards, Dr Varghese consulted two of the Braille distribution agencies that the BSI works with. Their reports indicated that one reason people of other faiths do not show much interest in Braille Scriptures is that they are so bulky: a Braille Bible takes up 43 volumes.

Furthermore, there has never been a Scripture Portion specially for visually-impaired of other faiths – until now.

“We had brought out suitable Scriptures for sighted people of other faiths, but nothing worth mentioning for the visually-handicapped except a few of our regular Selections printed in Braille,” Dr Varghese explained.

The BSI therefore began conducting research with a view to producing a booklet of Scriptures addressing the problems faced by visually-impaired people – designed, moreover, for those of other faiths.

In December 2001 – just nine months after the consultation in Thailand – trial editions of the Braille booklets in Tamil and English were available.

“There was a very good response from the visually-handicapped people – especially for the Tamil edition – and an immediate demand to reprint it,” said Dr Varghese. Consequently, there are now plans to produce it in Braille in four more Indian languages. That was not the end of the story, however.

The warm reception it was given prompted the suggestion that a version designed for people with other physical disabilities might be a good idea.
“Our General Secretary, Dr B K Pramanik, authorised the printing of 2,000 copies in English to evaluate its effectiveness,” said Dr Varghese. “We scouted for suitable pictures and the design and layouts were made. In June 2002 the booklets came out from the press for market testing.”

Dr Varghese noted that the BSI had received encouraging feedback from its Auxiliary Secretaries and others, and the booklet is now to be published in the Telugu and Kannada languages. Production in bulk was limited by financial constraints, he added, because the Scripture has to given out free – in all its editions – to handicapped and marginalised people.