Fulfillment of Inclusive Education Access Through Braille Jaw Aksara

(JAKARTA), — The 2026 National Education Day (Hardiknas) still leaves behind several important notes. Access to reading materials, guidelines, and teaching materials for visually impaired people is still far from the fire. Globally, according to the World Blind Union report, reveals that more than 90% of written works in the world are not accessible to visually impaired people. Even in Indonesia, quoting data from the Ministry of Education and Culture until the end of 2024, only 5% of textbooks and general reading have been converted into more accessible forms for visually impaired people, such as braille, audiobooks, or digital formats.

From the amount of media transfer, there is no room for teaching materials about learning local wisdom, one of which is the Javanese script guidelines for visually impaired people. In addition to creating inequality, the absence of these teaching materials threatens the continuity of the younger generation, including visually impaired friends, in an effort to preserve intangible cultural heritage and a number of works, including becoming a UNESCO Memory of the World (MoW).

In the midst of these challenges, the student of the Javanese Study Program of the UI FIB NaylaMarinlee Auramadina or karib, who is called Marin, answered the problem by building a learning system about the use of Javanese characters more inclusive and adaptive for non-sighted people with disabilities, through Sandhya-Braille. By utilizing technological developments in the era of the Industrial Revolution 4.0, Marin designed a Javanese character learning system through an accessible braille (abugida) approach.

"The braille silabis approach allows learning not to be done linearly per letter like the Latin alphabet, but to adapt the structure of the Jaw alphabet as a silabis system, including the unit of the alphabet, pairs, and sandhangan as elements that form syllables, so that it is easier for people with visual disabilities to learn and apply it," said Marin.

The Sandhya-Braille approach, continued Marin, makes it more systematic, in line with the linguistic structure of Javanese, and has the potential to support the learning process to become more independent, and meaningful for non-sighted disability learners. The design system with a strong conceptual basis in linguistics, mathematics, and pedagogy is built through mapping unique codes, regular transformation rules, and the division of functions of symbols that support tactile readability. In this way, Sandhya-Braille not only serves as a reading aid, but also as a model for inclusive learning so that it can be further developed to expand cultural literacy access for non-sighted disabilities.

Under the guidance of Dr. Atin Fitriana and Dwi Rahwamanto, M. Hum, Marin managed to win the First Champion of Outstanding Students (Mapres) of FIB UI carrying Sandhya-Braille as a solution to the lack of access to Javanese learning guidelines for the blind.

"I hope that Sandhya-Braille does not only end up being an idea at the Mapres FIB UI event, but can be realized so that blind and deaf disabled friends in and outside the country can learn and understand Javanese characters so that they can enjoy local wisdom sources in the form of Javanese-language manuscripts. Even further can expand the dream to become a Javanese philologist," said Marin. In conjunction with the 2026 Hardiknas anniversary, as a student Marin is encouraged to implement the Tridharma of Higher Education so that it does not only stop at education, research, but also community service as a real solution so that it has a social impact.

Efforts to provide accessible Javanese script learning for the visually impaired are in line with the agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 4 on Quality Education and SDG 10 on Reducing Inequalities as an important emphasis on providing equitable, inclusive, and meaningful learning access for all citizens.

Marin's enthusiasm to realize Sandhya-Braille is not without difficulty. The high cost of producing Sandhya-Braille makes him have to think hard to invite various parties to collaborate so that the guidelines for learning Javanese script for the visually impaired can be realized, distributed, and used sustainably. (*)