APSAA 亞太永續行動獎(Asia-Pacific Sustainability Action Awards )-Sustainability Action Award SDG10:Bronze
National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University 國立陽明交通大學
NYCU Audio Magazine for Visually Impaired People.
National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University Library (NYCU Library) attaches great importance to the reading rights of visually impaired people. The library recruit volunteers to make audio recordings of nine magazines, which could be accessed on the library's website and CDs mailed to them which both allowed free access.
The audio magazine service provided for visually impaired people has been continued for 24 years since 1999. The NYCU Library applied for the Higher Education Sprout Project budget in 2021 for funding to initiate the “Project of Updating the NYCU Audio magazine for Visually Impaired People.” The new NYCU audio magazine website was launched in the following year. Visually impaired people are able to get access to the new website and listen to the contents of the magazines on the Internet via computers or cellphones. In addition, the new website interfaces with the “Visual Impairment Information System” of the National Taiwan Library (NTL) in order to facilitate the co-sharing audio books among libraries. Members of the NTL can quickly sign up as members of the NYCU audio magazine website. Compared to other libraries that offer audio in collaboration with the NTL, the NYCU Library is one of the few libraries that provides audio versions of popular magazines, including “CommonWealth Magazine”, and is therefore popular among visually impaired people.
Meanwhile, the NYCU Library has held a special event called “Reading for Love” to celebrate NYCU's first anniversary. Intramural and extramural guests were invited to recite and record for the “Album in Celebration of 2022 NYCU Anniversary.” The event got positive reviews. Guests invited for the recording were inspired to sign up as long-term volunteers of the NYCU Library. Some magazine publishers also took the initiative to contact and offer authorization to the library.
We hope to provide visually impaired individuals with the latest information on social current events, arts and culture, health, science education, financial management, and other magazine content through this service. This will help us achieve SDG 4 by providing equal educational opportunities and promoting SDG 10 by the elimination of inequality. In the future, we will collaborate with speech processing research to promote the integration of SDG 9, the innovative industry development with this service, and integrate our school's medical research resources to achieve SDG 3, in order to promote mutual understanding and inclusion between the sighted and the visually impaired.
The audio magazine service provided for visually impaired people has been continued for 24 years since 1999. The NYCU Library applied for the Higher Education Sprout Project budget in 2021 for funding to initiate the “Project of Updating the NYCU Audio magazine for Visually Impaired People.” The new NYCU audio magazine website was launched in the following year. Visually impaired people are able to get access to the new website and listen to the contents of the magazines on the Internet via computers or cellphones. In addition, the new website interfaces with the “Visual Impairment Information System” of the National Taiwan Library (NTL) in order to facilitate the co-sharing audio books among libraries. Members of the NTL can quickly sign up as members of the NYCU audio magazine website. Compared to other libraries that offer audio in collaboration with the NTL, the NYCU Library is one of the few libraries that provides audio versions of popular magazines, including “CommonWealth Magazine”, and is therefore popular among visually impaired people.
Meanwhile, the NYCU Library has held a special event called “Reading for Love” to celebrate NYCU's first anniversary. Intramural and extramural guests were invited to recite and record for the “Album in Celebration of 2022 NYCU Anniversary.” The event got positive reviews. Guests invited for the recording were inspired to sign up as long-term volunteers of the NYCU Library. Some magazine publishers also took the initiative to contact and offer authorization to the library.
We hope to provide visually impaired individuals with the latest information on social current events, arts and culture, health, science education, financial management, and other magazine content through this service. This will help us achieve SDG 4 by providing equal educational opportunities and promoting SDG 10 by the elimination of inequality. In the future, we will collaborate with speech processing research to promote the integration of SDG 9, the innovative industry development with this service, and integrate our school's medical research resources to achieve SDG 3, in order to promote mutual understanding and inclusion between the sighted and the visually impaired.