Reading and writing are the most essential components of a person’s education.  This was made possible for the blind people by the genius invention of Louis Braille which has  resulted in the script named after him. National Association for the blind being the largest organization in the field of Empowerment of the Blind in this country was conscious of this fact and hence established one of the largest Braille Printing Houses in this country.

HISTORY

With the kind assistance of American Foundation for Overseas Blind, NAB set up the Braille Press in June 1958 in a small Garage at Jogeshwari, Mumbai.  Initially, the Braille Press printed books of general interest.  Bapuki Jhankhyan.  A book on the life of Mahatma Gandhi was the first book printed by this press.

In 1963, Govt of India designated this Braille Press as the Regional Braille Press for the Western Region.

In 1984, this Braille Press was relocated at its  present premises in Worli, Mumbai.

In 1994, as part of NAB’ s tradition of innovative activities the press started using Computerized Braille Embosser – this was only the second of its kind in the whole of India. 

ACTIVITIES

Text Books: This Braille Press print Text Books for both Marathi and English Medium students from std. I to X for the State of Maharashtra.  These comprises text books of all subjects including Maths and Science.  We are proud that we have been asked to supply Text Books by the State of Maharasthra for covering blind students under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. 

In the past, we have also brought out Text Books for the State of Gujarat and have been instrumental in getting the Text Books printed for the states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Periodicals:  This Braille Press brings out five periodicals in Hindi and English.

Vigyan Bharati of quarterly Braille periodical in Hindi is exclusively devoted to Science
and Technology and its unique in this sense.

Deepshikha is a Hindi quarterly exclusively devoted to women’s issues.

Vartaman is a fortnightly based on non-political current news item.

General Literature:

This Braille Press brings out general literature in 5 languages -  Marathi, Hindi, English, Gujarati & Sanskrit.  This includes both fiction and non-fiction.  Some of the classics have also been printed and religious texts is also made available to the Readers.

KAL NIRNAY:

The Braille Press has been bringing out Kal Nirnay, a popular Calendar – cum - Almanac in Hindi for the past several years.  This is supplied to over 1500 individuals and institutions all over India.

It is noteworthy that all literature printed in this Braille Press is made available at a highly subsidized cost i.e., 1 / 8th of the total production cost.

TACTILE  GRAPHS:

This Braille Press also operates a Tactile Graph Unit which has led to some of the unique creations.

In 1970 this Braille Press brought out a Braille Atlas which was a first of its kind in this country.

Chitra Manjusha Tactile Victorial Book-let depicting graphs of several items was brought out to enable the blind to get an idea of the surrounding world.

A book on acupressure was also brought out with appropriate graphs in four languages.  The Tactile Graph unit of the press has been quite active in the past years.

MACHINERY

This Braille Press was started with second hand machines donated by the American Foundation for Overseas Blind way back in late 1950’s. 

Presently this Braille Press is one of the biggest Printing Houses of this country.  It has two conventional presses –  Krausse Automatic Press and Platon  hand operated Press;  one computerized Braille Plate Embossing Machine – Puma VI ; three Computerized Embossers – Braillo 400 – S ,  4 x 4 pro and 4 waves.  Thus it has got probably  the largest printing capacity in this country.

FUTURE  PLANS:

The Braille Press continues to evolve new activities and among its future plans is a project to convert Indian folk tales in Braille.

How you can help

• You can help in data entry for English and other Indian language even if you do not know Braille.
• You can help in scanning and editing material for Braille conversion
• You can help in tallying the print text with Braille text for error checking

For further details you may contact
Mr. K Raman Shankar /Mr. Mahendra More
 
At
National Association For The Blind( Head Office)
11-12 Khan Abdul Gaffer Khan Road,
Worli Seaface,
Mumbai-400030.
Tel: 2498 3716/ 2493 6930,
Ext235/251
TeleFax: 2493 2539/ 5370.