KUALA LUMPUR, April 19 — The country’s first-ever bilingual Braille dictionary will be distributed for free to special education schools, universities, training centres and the visually impaired nationwide beginning next month.
Trustee of the Malaysian Foundation for the Blind (MFB) Silatul Rahim Dahman said the development of the bilingual lexicon, which began in 2021, was fully completed last year with an allocation of about RM500,000.
“Based on preliminary plans, a total of 1,000 dictionaries will be distributed, besides being promoted at the regional level, including in Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and southern Thailand, if there is a demand. I’m confident there is a demand because there is no such dictionary in the Braille format in this region.
“This dictionary contains about 20,000 words translated from English to Bahasa Melayu and published in nine volumes by Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM),” he told reporters after the launch of the dictionary by Yayasan Petronas head of Corporate Planning and Services Khairunnisa Ghazali here today.
Silatul Rahim said a panel of 15 specialists involved in producing the dictionary comprised officers from the Education Ministry, teachers from special education schools and educators from the Teacher Training Institute.
Silatul Rahim, who is also president of the International Council for Special Education in the East Asia Region, said phase two of the development of the dictionary, which contains 50,000 words, is expected to begin next year and would take one year to complete.
In addition, he also expressed the need to public more dictionaries and encyclopaedias in Braille or audio format for the visually impaired and not just rely on one publication.
“Like the general public that has many options when it comes to dictionaries, such as Oxford and Webster, the visually impaired group also needs access to various sources,” he said.
Meanwhile, the head of the Bilingual Braille Dictionary Development Project, Dr Mohd Norazmi Nordin hopes that the dictionary will not only be used as a translation tool but also a catalyst for the mastery of both languages (English and Bahasa Melayu) among the Braille users.
Mohd Norazmi, who is also a senior lecturer (Special Education-Visual Impairment), Centre for the Study of Education and Community Wellbeing, Faculty of Education at UKM, said this effort is the starting point to more inclusive initiatives in assisting in learning sessions for the disabled.
“Hopefully, this dictionary will spur more collaboration among educational institutions, non-governmental organisations and corporations in producing learning materials for the visually-impaired community,” he said in a statement today. — Bernama
