The Digital Literacy Program: A Newgen–Benetech Partnership

Newgen KnowledgeWorks and Benetech India have launched a digital literacy program for visually challenged children in India. 

The Digital Literacy Program kicked off in June 2024 in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, with the express aim of empowering students and making them digitally literate. The three main pillars of the program are Content, Device and Training. The Newgen-Benetech model of digital literacy will focus on making these three pillars available for visually challenged students.

Benetech, a renowned, global, non-profit organization for education equity is currently working with schools and organizations around the world to ensure inclusive education, digital literacy and access to learning materials for students with disabilities in the field of education as well as employment.  In the first phase of the program, teachers and students from STD 7-8  in St. Joseph’s Higher Secondary School for the Blind School in Madurai have been empowered with essential computer skills. User-friendly laptops with essential accessories are provided to students and teachers by Newgen in order to integrate their learning in the classrooms.

Dr. Homiyar Mobedji, Disability Expert, Program Management (Asia and Africa-Benetech), says, The Newgen-Benetech partnership is a game changer in the state of Tamil Nadu, where the partnership has demonstrated clearly the path ahead for the students, who till now had to be dependent on others for their “Reading and Writing needs”. The project has ensured that the students coming out of the school will have the required skills for being employable at the end of their academic careers, hence becoming “Nation Builders” rather than be dependent on charity. We appeal to society to adopt this model where “Empowerment” is the focus.

Newgen has also contributed to the digital literacy program through the conversion of all necessary textbooks to accessible EPUB content. This significant move will ensure that all students have access to the resources. Benetech has provided training to the teachers and students at the school on how to use the laptops and has also ensured that the teaching practice is modernized and that the teachers use digital tools to impart state-of-the-art education to their students.

Bookshare, a Benetech Initiative, is currently the largest online accessible library available for the print disabled (www.bookshare.org). Bookshare hosts hundreds of thousands of e-books in five accessible formats that can be downloaded by any person with a print disability, anytime, on any device.