Tiflolibros - Global

This initiative is based on the efforts of organisers to access their own reading materials by using computers and scanners - and then sharing the results with each other. This sharing model informed the development of the library, which features an online catalog of e-books that registered members can download using their personal password. (Membership is free, although a financial donation equivalent to the cost of 2 printed books per month is suggested). Each member then "reads" the books through synthetic-voice reading computers, Braille tapes, or other electronic reading devices for people with disabilities. This is to be a library open to any visually impaired person from anywhere in the world, as well as institutions that digitally produce material for the blind or that want to make books available for the visually impaired.

Participation of Tiflolibros members is central to the maintenance and expansion of this electronic library. This participation takes the form of users scanning books themselves, authors contributing books to the organisation in digital medium, and sighted volunteers providing books and helping correct them. Furthermore, the group works ad honorem, and is made up of individuals that began to participate in the mailing list and gradually took on tasks due to their knowledge and the needs that gradually arose as the project expanded. To cite a few examples, designated members upload the books they receive from other users, translate material and programmes, and take charge of broadcasting and promoting the initiative in their respective cities or countries.

Another project strategy is encouraging blind persons to take advantage of the Internet's potential to enable communication and shared work - ultimately, it is hoped, generating other projects related to access to information, culture, and entertainment for the visually impaired. To promote awareness, enthusiasm, and participation related to this potential, Tiflolibros has organised various events, such as chats to urge users to enroll in the world of real-time communication through the Internet, live audio streaming with participating users that send recordings or sound contributions, and the cooperative creation of a literary piece ("The Story of Casimiro Sixlights the Blindman" [Historia del Ciego Casimiro Seisluces]).

More centrally, Tiflolibros engenders communication between visually impaired persons living in diverse geographic areas. The mailing list is the means by which the members circulate information and exchange experiences and resources. Organisers cite Claudio, who is the only blind person in Rio Colorado, a town in the province of Rio Negro, Argentina, as an example. He began to participate in Tiflolibros through a teacher at his school who neither possessed any information on how to work with a visually impaired person nor was aware of the options available for Claudio's development.

Organisers say that the quantity, variety, and quality of the books in Tiflolibros were previously unavailable to the visually impaired due to the time and cost of the production of books in Braille or on tape. To the extent possible, organisers make these books available in a timely fashion. For example, books from the Sudamericana and Alfaguara publishing houses are published in the library the same month the books become available in bookstores. Tiflolibros published the last two books by Ana Maria Shua, which were handed over by the author herself, 2 months before their sale began in bookstores.

This initiative was one of the 12 finalists for the 2003 Association for Progressive Communications (APC) Betinho Communications Prize, which recognises people-centred technology initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean.