Tech Power: Can’t beat this visually challenged man in reading fast

Mumbai: Rahul Kelapure, 32, is an A-grade officer working in the legal cell division of the Securities Exchange Board of India. What sets him apart though is that despite being visually challenged by birth, he can read and grasp words on the computer four times faster than a visually able person. Mr Kelapure’s is a unique story of persistence, hard work and determination that has helped him beat grave odds and become a role model for others.

A merit holder in SSC with a Bachelor’s degree in Arts and LLB from Mumbai University, Mr Kelapure, who hails from Nagpur, has, while handling high profile cases against business tycoons in the past three years, acquired a unique skill set of “speed reading” on the computer using a specific screen reader software called Job Access With Speech.

The software, which enables visually impaired users to read the screen either with a text-to-speech output or by a refreshable braille display, has a combination of keystrokes which completely substitutes the job of a mouse in a computer.

Mr Kelapure’s skill set has not only helped him complete his education with flying colours but it has also helped him in his profession as an advocate where he needs to read and refer to law books and lengthy legal documents.

The default speed of JAWS is 15 implying 115 words per minute while Mr Kelaskar has achieved a speed of 62, which comes to 470 words per minute. If compared to a normal A4 page reading, it would be an average 70 pages per hour.

Moreover, if Mr Kelapure needs to go through hard documents, he then gets them scanned first and then the picture of a separate document is converted into words that help him read and grasp the material.