For the blind, a new Window to the world

For the blind, a new Window to the world
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

MUMBAI, JUNE 7: It is an unlikely combination, a visually impaired person and a computer. But the Indian Association for the Visually Handicapped (IAVH) is keen on making this a terrific combine. To help the blind integrate themselves into a mainstream society hooked on to digital technology, the IAVH today launched its computer training centre for the visually impaired at the Vidyarthi Vidyapeeth Bhavan, Churchgate.

The centre, set up with the support of Mumbai University and Microsoft, has introduced a six-months computer course for blind students, for Rs 3,000. Twenty students have already enrolled for the course that begins on June 9.

The IAVH claims the course is first of its kind in India as it provides special equipment for the blind such as an Index pro Braille printer, a Galileo text reader, Braille translation software, tactile Graphic design and a screen reading software called Job Access for Windows (JAWS).

According to Shilpi Kapoor of IAVH, who designed the programme, ``We are just not teaching computer applications but trying to enable the blind to get a visual image of windows and other images on the monitor in the same way a sighted person would see them.''

The IAVH says the screen reading software will help the blind not only understand keyboard applications but also hear what is being typed by them. This will make them self-dependent. Text, in fact, can also be printed by a Braille printer.

However, the handicap of the software, which uses an English screen reader, is that it will be comprehensible only to those who know English. Another criterion mentioned by the IAVH for those wishing to join the course is education up to the SSC. This could rob a majority of the blind population of a chance to enrol.

Yet hopes run high. Ganesh Ramchandran, one of the students who has enrolled, said: ``I have done my MA in history and various other courses but they haven't enabled me to get a job. This is my last option.''

Arti Bubna, partially blind, who started her own computer training institute at Goregoan earlier this year said: ``Computer education had long been denied to the visually handicapped by leading computer training institutes, who neither had the software JAWS nor could provide personal attention necessary in teaching a blind student.'' She says she was herself rejected by the established institutes when she sought admission.

Ashutosh Vaidya, director of Microsoft pointed out: ``The advance of technology has created a digital divide between the haves and have nots. It is therefore very important that the blind don't get left out in this race.''