Based on data from Persatuan Tunanetra Indonesia (PERTUNI) in 2016, there are 3.7 million people with visual impairment in Indonesia. For them, the availability of braille books in Indonesia is still relatively small and with prices that are not cheap. The fact that underlies the development of Ayobaca.in application that provides audio books for the visually impaired.
Ayobaca.in application that provides digital audio books with special specifications for people with disabilities, especially the visual impairment. The application was developed by a group of Indonesian students initiated by Deka Komanda Yogyantara, Razii Abraham, Claristy, Debora Valentini Br Ginting and Ferry Fernando.
The five students are alumni of XLFL Program of the 3rd generation, and there are two students from outside of XLFL they are Velta Azizah Destiana, Risyad Ridho Hasbullah. The initiative was welcomed by XL Axiata by supporting its development.
Chief Corporate Affair Officer of XL Axiata, Eka B. Danuwirana said that the presence of digital technology in the community should be utilized to give birth to various facilities that are beneficial to improve the quality of life of the community as well, including improving the quality of education for people with disabilities. “The Ayobaca.in app will surely help fellow blind people to gain access to books as a source of knowledge,” he said in a press release we received (29/5).
Ayobaca.in became the first application in Indonesia to convert conventional books into audio books by involving the community as a volunteer reader. Various types of reading are presented in this application, such as school textbooks or textbooks, scientific books, modules, to comics and novels.
The Ayobaca.in app can now be downloaded via the Play Store for Android 4.0 smartphone users up or accessible through the website www.ayobaca.in, and will be available on iOS next month. People can volunteer to read out the wide selection of books available in the app by recording sounds in real time, anywhere and anytime, and via any medium. The next sound recording is uploaded to Ayobaca.in. The reader can read the chapters he likes, then proceed to the rest.
Furthermore, the app developer will convert the recording to an audio book on CD. By targeting 1 day 1 book (1 book equivalent to 10-12 hours audio version) which can be converted next audio book will be distributed by Yayasan Mitra Netra and PERTUNI to various foundations and special libraries of the visually impaired.
