Software to aid visually impaired learn
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, February 03, 2012:
Thanks to an innovative software development, visually impaired students can now aspire to be computer-savvy and compete with their visually unimpaired peers.
Speaking to The Sangai Express Hijam Kirankumar of Ideal Blind School, Takyelpat expressed elation that recent introduction of Duxbury (JAWS) software Braillo 440 Model Capacity at the School will enable the visually impaired students to get acquainted with computer knowledge.
Hailing from Hailakandi of Assam and the elder of two male siblings born to Hijam Khambaton, Kirankumar said he was introduced to the Blind School by noted singer Sunita Nepram, herself visually impaired.
Informing that the Takyelpat School is the only institute in the North East region out of 10 such institutes of the country enlisted by the Union Ministry of Information for imparting computer education, the Assam native confided that being visually impaired he often cursed himself whenever his friends talked about computer and importance of the technology in everyday life.
With his dream to be computer-literate about to materialise as minor adjustments to the new software is still in the process, Kirankumar conveyed gratitude to Sunita Nepram introducing him to the ideal Blind School.
JAWS, which stands for Job Access With Speech, is said to be a computer screen reader programme in Microsoft Windows that allows the blind and visually impaired users to read the screen either with a text-to-speech output or by a refreshable Braille display.
The software is produced by the Blind and Low Vision group of Freedom Scientific, USA.
According to the School headmistress Y Durgabati Devi, the Institute has six computers under the provision of the Union Ministry since 2003 but the gadgets were of insignificant use to the students as there is paucity of fund for upgrading the technology.
Even though Braille 440 Model Capacity software was introduced to the School in February 2010 and students were initially familiarised with its usage the learning process is currently put on hold due to technical error, said the headmistress adding that a computer expert from New Delhi would be arriving soon to check the technical snag.