Speaking Library” project provides access of blind and visually impaired people to artistic literature by landline phones without leaving their home. This is completely free-of-charge service and all countrywide local landline/mobile phones have access to it. It is important to dial 1541 to connect to the system, to select the genre, the writer, the works, and listen. You can stop listening to the book any time and after a while , continue listening to it from the place where you stopped.
The system has a very simple split of IVR system, as when the call is received, IVR starts playing author’s books once you initially select the genre and the author. For example, you need to choose an appropriate number in order to listen to the literature you want. After selection you can temporarily stop the sound by pushing the “pause” button or playback again from the point where it left off. Besides this, the system also offers the option of resuming from the same point if the same book is selected over the same phone number after hanging up the phone. This modules provide convenient use of the system by users.

http://www.library.rabita.az

• Azerbaijan

• People with disabilities

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) data, there are around 284 million people with visual impairments worldwide. Of these, 39 million are suffering from complete blindness, 245 million are suffering from mild and severe forms of vision impairment.
In general, 90% of the visual impairment is spread in developing and undeveloped countries. It is estimated that by the year of 2020 this figure will reach 76 million. Blindness among children is 4% of total blindness, meaning that 19 million children suffer from visual impairments worldwide. Of these, 1.4 million children are completely blind. It is 22% in African countries, 5,8%, in US, 15,2 % in European countries and 13,6% in South-East Asia.

Literature for people with visual disabilities shall be the sustainable project in Azerbaijan. This will benefit all visually impaired people which will enable their academic competency and performance. Visually impaired people will enjoy access to literature
The unique feature of the presented audio-library is that it establishes the "Speaking" book fund in Azerbaijani for the visually impaired people. The audio library is available only in Azerbaijani language.
The daily communication means of the 10 million people of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the official state language is the Azerbaijani language. Over 30 million people speak Azerbaijani worldwide. In this regard, the presented audio library is only in Azerbaijani. It is also planned to add the language option tool, as well as include Russian and English languages to this system in the future. To this end, the recording of the books by professional actors in those two languages has already begun. Moreover, these audiobooks are intended to be provided to partner bookstores in form of CDs, and users can also download it from sites in the future.
In the future, the system will also be interactive. The listeners will also be able to sound play their own short stories about the book, which will help other audiences select books. Sections on ranking of most read books, information about authors, etc. will be posted as well.

It is worth to mention that, there are some writers and authors who volunteer in the project. They audio-record their books professionally and apply to us for adding these books to the system free of charge. The recorded audiobooks are added to the system if it meets all the requirements.

For this kind of special category readers, it is difficult to go to ordinary libraries every day. But here visually impaired persons can easily listen to any audio book they want. Thus, this project could be easily replicate in any other country. This project promotes access to information and knowledge for the visually impaired people. “Speaking library” is a tool that will provide equal possibilities for visually disable people. Will ease their life and add colors to it.