Features December 2021∣Youth Hong Kong
Chasing Hong Kong
Lighthouses
A
by Ryan Ho
n audio-braille book was produced by a collaborative group of students, one of whom is visually-impaired. The project focused on lighthouses and promotes inclusivity.
The Lighthouse Heritage Research Connections (LHRC) project recruits students and others to contribute their strengths and professional knowledge while also promoting collaboration between the visuallyimpaired and sighted people. It includes many parts, from visiting lighthouses to production of content for audio-braille books and recording of that content. I worked with a visually-impaired student, Rita Lam, to produce an audio-braille book in Cantonese, the aim of which was to provide detailed, factual information about Hong Kong lighthouses for the visuallyimpaired local community. There is also an English version for a non-Chinese speaking audience.
Production of content Producing the content for the book took place in two stages. The first was writing up the text, and the second was transforming it into braille format for printing. To begin with, a group of volunteers from two different university departments started writing content. They consulted Rita throughout the process, to be sure of clarity of meaning as visually-impaired people may perceive or understand concepts in a different way from sighted people. Rita provided constructive opinions and feedback on the choice of terminology that illustrates features of the lighthouses and thus she made the content more reader-friendly to the visually-impaired community. Moreover, she recommended the addition of material on the history of lighthouses, as 38
well as purely descriptive, practical content, which made the audio-braille book more interesting. Next, we transferred the content into braille format. Since a braille reader identifies Chinese words by pronunciation, when there is more than one pronunciation for the same word in Cantonese, the machine may identify and output the wrong term, hence leading to confusion. Therefore, Rita’s help was also needed to fine-tune and recheck the braille version before the book was printed and ensure that no mistakes were made.
Recording of content Since visually-impaired people have to read passages word by word due to the limitations of the braille reader, a recording of the content makes book more accessible and more convenient for learning about lighthouses.
A braille reader is an electronic device that allows a blind person to read the text displayed on a computer monitor. Braille readers come in various forms and there are also braille reader apps for smartphones and tablets
