The State government on Tuesday told the High Court of Karnataka that a committee has been constituted by the Karnataka Textbook Society to take steps to upload textbooks of State syllabus in EPUB-3 format for the academic year beginning June 2020 to enable easy conversion of textbook content to Braille.
A government counsel placed a memo in this regard before a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Hemant Chandangoudar during the hearing of a PIL petition filed by National Federation of the Blind, Karnataka. The Bench was informed that the committee, constituted on February 4, had been asked to submit a report after taking input from various departments to ensure that the textbooks are made available in the EPUB-3 format from the ensuing academic year.
Meanwhile, the Bench adjourned further hearing while asking the government to examine another plea made in the petition to ensure that all children with visual disabilities in the State have access to free textbooks, reference books and other learning/educational material in Braille, and to review all websites and online contents uploaded by them and ensure that they are available in accessible format to persons with visual disabilities.
