Talking books ?!?!?

My work station at MAB.

I have been involved in charity since I was in my early twenties. After marriage, two kids in tow and focusing on career building, the 'giving back to society' part of me took a back seat temporarily. Intermittently,  I do send donations to deserving societies/individuals/private welfare homes,etc whenever I can depending on what I could afford to spare.

The past 8-9 years I have been active again. This year, I wanted to do things differently and decided to make it a long term project. I read in the newspaper last year that the Malaysian Association of the Blind (MAB) was looking for volunteers. So I called them to offer my services. After an audition, I was asked to return in 2013 to start 'work'.

So what do I do then? Well...I 'read' to the blind by recording my voice from the selection of books provided by MAB. Hah! Easy peasy! WRONG! I was so wrong to think that it is easy. In reality, it is tough and one needs a lot of patience, persistency and concerted effort to make it happen. HUH? Let me share with you....

Check out what I have to assist me in recording the books - see my workstation (pix above)? I get an air-conditioned sound proof room all to myself during recording. Well, below is a close up of what my 'work' entails.

My headpiece to record my voice

  
This talking computer records my reading. The talking part is more for the blind than the sighted. I have to first enter line by line & record my voice for the title, the author, the editor and the publishing house. Then read the book's synopsis. Subsequently, capture each and every new chapter heading. Easy? No! This is just the beginning. 

FYI, I had to re-learn when to pause and when to stop so that the listener would know if it is a title, sub-title or content or is it a comma or a full stop. The top section indicated in the picture above consists of just the book title, author, etc & new chapters' headers.

The lower section (see picture below) : highlighted in blue is where I record my reading chapter by chapter. Each row may represent a word, a pause or an entire sentence, depending on how it was read out loud & captured by the program. The entire section below may run between 100-300 rows just for a chapter! The lighter highlight (upper section) indicates the chapter I am currently recording.
 

 
After each recording, sometimes a whole chapter and at other times just a sentence, I need to stop recording to ensure clarity, intonation & enunciation is correct. If at all I mispronounce or pause over a word or use "errr or ahhh"...I need to delete that particular row captured by the computer and redo it. Sometimes, I need to redo it 3-4 times just to perfect a single sentence or a paragraph! The program reads out what you have recorded and if you accidentally deleted the wrong row....boy oh boy....you have to start all over again because there is no such thing as add row and reread from where you have deleted!!! Aduuuiiii!

I spent about 2.5hrs -3 hrs each week to do the recording. Inclusive of travelling time is about 4-5hours. I get self satisfaction from what I do and am glad that I am able to contribute to the blind. I've just started and I call out to you to also lend a hand in helping the blind or other causes.

Apart from recording a book, they also need volunteers to type out motivational books to be converted into braille. To lend your hand, please reach out to :

                                       Malaysian Association of the Blind (MAB)
                                       Kompleks MAB
                                       Jalan Tebing
                                       Off Jalan Tun Sambathan 4
                                       Brickfields
                                       50470 Kuala Lumpur
                                       Tel : +60 3 2272 2677
                                       Email : enquiry@mab.org.my     

My apologies if I had misled you to read my blog with the uncanny title called " Talking Books?!?!?!" ..noooow honestly....if I were to re-title it as "Reading to the blind" or "book that talks" or "Charity work", do you think you would open up to read more? I needed something catchy to attract you so that you will want to find out more.

I've always had a soft spot for the blind because they can never ever see, sense or know the wonderful colorful world we lived in. The array of colors is intoxicating and so vibrant. It is sad that this part is missing from their life. They can only imagine but nowhere near what the real thing is. What I do is a mere milli-fraction of what they have to go through in live not able to see and appreciate what we the sighted often take for granted.

So let's reach out and do our part to help the needy. And, thank you in advance to you (whoever you are) for your contribution(s) to society. God bless! If you can't do anything this year, please share my blog with your friends or relatives so that they too can help do their part. Thank you! Thank you!

Take care and let's be more appreciative of what we have and count our blessings! Ciao!