M’sia producing its first MalayEnglish Braille dictionary

People with visual impairments will have the opportunity to learn English with correct spelling and pronunciation when the country’s first bilingual dictionary in Braille, which is currently in the prototype process, is fully completed.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) special education programme head Dr Mohd Norazmi Nordin said this bilingual Braille dictionary will not only benefit this group but also teachers who teach visually impaired students, especially in English.

“Previously, the available references were only word lists... but this Malay-English and English-Malay Braille dictionary that is being developed is a complete dictionary from the letter A to Z along with clear explanations like any other dictionary,” he told Bernama.

Mohd Norazmi, who is also a lecturer in special education (Visual Impairment), was met after the signing ceremony of the Letter of Intent for Cooperation between UKM’s Faculty of Education and Muslim Care Malaysia, here recently.

Apart from Muslim Care Malaysia, the bilingual Braille dictionary project has also received cooperation from the Malaysian Foundation for the Blind and City University Malaysia, and is supported by Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), Malaysian Institute of Translation and Books, and the National Library of Malaysia.

Using the Oxford Fajar Bilingual Dictionary as the main reference, Mohd Norazmi said they would invite related experts for word selection and screening, as well as volunteers to input selected words into the bilingual Braille dictionary.

Mohd Norazmi, who has over 13 years of experience in special education, said the first prototype is expected to be completed within six months to a year and requires funding of up to RM130,000 to complete 20 volumes of the Braille dictionary.

According to him, the production of this dictionary incurs higher costs compared to regular dictionaries as it requires more pages due to the Braille writing system.