Gov’t office prints books for blind

MANILA, Philippines—Textbooks are essential tools for learning. Without them, students cannot keep up in class. For regular students, finding textbooks is not a problem, as most bookstores carry the titles they need. But for blind students attending public schools, appropriate learning materials are not easy to come by.

But they get help from the Department of Education (DepEd) through Philippine Printing House for the Blind (PPHB), the only government technical office that produces and distributes Braille books and other educational materials for free to blind students in public elementary and high schools.

Braille is a form of written language for the blind that uses combinations of embossed dots and points, which are read by touch.

PPHB has its home in Room M-116 at the DepEd complex in Pasig City. Established in 1963, it is under the supervision of the Bureau of Elementary Education’s Special Education Division, which reports to the Office of the Secretary.

Special Education (SPED) teachers can obtain for their pupils the Braille versions of textbooks specified by the DepEd through official written requests to PPHB or letters from partner organizations such as Resources for the Blind Inc. (RBI), a nongovernment organization that provides a range of services to visually impaired people and supports the DepEd.

For requests coming from the Visayas and Mindanao, the books are mailed at no cost through RBI, which marks them “Free Matter for the Blind.”

Braille staff

Printed books for sighted students are rendered into Braille by a staff composed of visually impaired and sighted personnel. Theirs is a small team of encoders, transcribers, proofreaders, copyreaders, bookbinders, printing foreman, a copy editor and others headed by a publications production supervisor, Rebecca Arabain, who is blind from childhood. Part of Arabain’s responsibilities is to check every single volume before approving it for final production.

Elizabeth Salinas has normal vision but has learned Braille and does encoding using software called Duxbury.

Another blind employee is Allan Mesoga, who has a master’s degree in Education focused on teaching children with vision loss. He transcribes and proofreads material on his computer using the Job Access with Speech (JAWS) software, or a “screen reader.”

The materials are embossed on prepunched, 29-by-29.21-centimeter paper using a Braille 200 embosser machine, then cut and bound on a Burster binding machine, both on loan from RBI. The books last for two years.

Bulky books

The system is an improvement from the technology in the early 1960s, when PPHB used a Braille platen press and zinc sheets made from scraps solicited from local printers.

Books for people with sight can be vastly different from those used by the blind, not just in characters but also in bulk.

To understand the difference, take the “English Expressway 1” textbook for Grade 1 students, for example. The printed book has 260 pages but the Braille version has seven volumes with a total of 343 pages, one-side embossing. It is intended for Grades 1-3 visually impaired pupils.

The printed “Chemistry 11” for third year high school has 394 pages. Its Braille version has 11 volumes with 468 pages.

The Rizal classic “Noli Me Tangere” is prescribed reading in schools. But according to Jesus Alforte, PPHB printing foreman, there has been few requests for it in the past few years.

National Book Store has published a 382-page edition of “Noli.” The Braille version has eight volumes with 836 pages, in back-to-back, or “interpoint,” embossing.

Poor families with visually impaired children find it hard to to pay for learning materials in Braille.

According to Lorie Barboza, head of Braille production at RBI, a “Filipino I” textbook in Braille, which has seven to eight volumes, costs around P2,000.

But PPHB also provides other free items necessary for schoolwork, although only as long as stocks last.

In its 2013 annual report, PPHB says it sent 193 reams of Practice Braille paper to 59 schools for blind students and 34 sets of writing slates with styluses to four schools.

Helping parents

“That’s less expense for parents,” Arabain said. “Some parents do not know that their blind children have a chance to get an education despite their expensive needs. Those who know struggle and they receive help from the government in educating their blind children.”

PPHB also offers seminars on developments in Braille and conducts workshops for its staff and SPED teachers from public schools.