[Reader-list] Content analysis of magazine published in Brail

[ram murthi]

hello everyone,
I am Ram a postgraduate in history from Punjab University Chandigarh. I am visually challenged by birth. After completing my Masters in History I worked with Eklavya, (an institute for innovative education and research) in Devas and Hoshangabad (Madya Pradesh). I was part of there social science programme. I was involved in training of teachers and preparation of study material for teacher and students. I conducted research about the conceptual understanding of children as they are evolved in the textbook prepared by Eklavya. Now I am doing my Bachelor in education from Government College of education, Jalandhar where I am being taught what I did for ten years. It is a matter of degree and employment. On my fellowship grant with Sarai I will try to explore certain crucial aspects related with content and subject matter carried by Brail (script that is dotted by owl on thick paper and it can be read by touch of finger.) magazines. Here is the brief of my proposed study.
Like the most tradition-ridden societies, Indian society views visually impaired people as separate section of society. There are lots of illusions and misconceptions among people about visually challenged people. A myth goes that visually impaired persons are specifically created creatures on earth whom God has gifted extra senses (mind, concentration etc.). Such misleading beliefs result in believing that visually impaired people are essentially very talented. On the other hand lot of people believe that visually challenged person are great burden on society, as they can’t contribute in the growth and development of society. People upholding this belief also think that visually impaired people are least bothered about worldly affairs and are least concerned about general tendencies of society. Above kind of illusion can be found profoundly in more or less every society in India irrespective to nature of their social structure.
The deeper ignorance in the societies about these people brought indifferent attitude in media to deal with problems and issues related to visually challenged people. This problem is further compounded by technological backwardness of audio aids available to assist the visually challenged people. Whatever little coverage is given by newspapers or general magazines is basically based on above mentioned misconceptions. These magazines are unable to construct the images of visually challenged people as an image of general persons who are regarded as integral part of society and who respond in a particular socialized manner.
Innovation of the Brail script contributed in a radical manner to make visually impaired person independent up to certain extent in reading and writing. Some amount of literature is being published in Brail even in India, yet its readership and its coverage of contents is quiet limited. This literature includes textbooks, fiction and non-fiction, religious scriptures and periodicals. These magazines have government as well as private publishers and readers from all walks of society. 
Present study will try to explore about the construction of image/s of visually impaired person through these magazines. Are they able to expose visually impaired persons to concerns of different sections of society? How the content of these magazines reflect the social misconceptions about visually challenged people or question these misconceptions?
Explosion of knowledge and advancement of technique has shifted the paradigm of academic and non-academic world in a drastic manner. It will be interesting to watch how these magazines are able to catch up with these phenomena. By and large most of the publications (Brail and others) have their target readership and they continuously cater the interest of that particular readership. Some of them do have ideological slant as well.
This study will try to look at this factor as well. In other words it will be explored that what kind of readership these magazines have. Is their any particular attempt on the part of editorial board/editor to sustain the interest of its readership? Do they have particular ideological framework to socialize the visually impaired person, if so what kind of efforts are being made in their publications. Study will also seek to find out that what kind of socio-political, economic and cultural issues are being taken up by these magazines and in which manner they tend to analyze those issues. Are these magazines able to up keep the level of information as compared to other general information based magazines?

comments and suggestions are welcome
regards
ram
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