A city-based visually impaired software professional has come out with an 'open source voice-enabled software' based on LINUX system, for the benefit of visually handicapped.
Krishnakant told reporters here that the 'ORCA software' which allowed development of a free (open source) software, reduced the costs as no licence was required.
IT companies were at present reluctant to recruit visually impaired as they had to install proprietory software, the licence of which costs a minimum of Rs 70,000 for each computer, he said.
C Umashankar, managing director, Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu, which was promoting the software, said Rs 500,000 investment was needed to install a proprietory software, to be shared by five visually impaired people. But, using the new software, 22 computers could be installed.
Krishnakant hoped that with the introduction of the new software, there would be a dramatic improvement in the recruitment of visually impaired by IT companies.
The new product had all the facilities similar to any Windows-based software, he said. All business functions and calculations apart from browsing and e-mail