Blind using computers now a reality
Visually impaired students of Baptist Mission Integrated School (BMIS) at Mirpur yesterday proved that the blind using computers is no longer a fantasy.
At a workshop held at the BMIS campus, they demonstrated their skills with Screen Reading Software designed for the blind and the shortsighted.
The workshop titled 'Introduction to computer literacy for people who are blind or visually impaired' was organised under the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Reform project of International Labour Organisation and the Bangladesh government and funded by the European Commission.
Speakers at the workshop said making ICT accessible to the blind or shortsighted people can help empower them and lead them to meaningful employment opportunities instead of just living a life of neglect.
It can also help them be informed and share information, they added.
Stewart Hamling, a blind IT expert from Australia, conducted the workshop.
He introduced the Screen Reading Software to the blind BMIS students, teachers and representatives from organisations working with the blind.
Hamling, who is an IT change coordinator for an electricity generating company in Australia, said, “Visually impaired people can realistically leverage these technologies to help achieve important goals in life. It also enables communication between the visually impaired.”
At the inaugural ceremony of the workshop, Stefan Frowein, EC Ambassador to Bangladesh, said blind students can turn their lives around through training like any other able person.
This workshop is aimed at raising awareness about the potentiality they have to offer.
Computer training will improve their general education by enabling them to easily access documents, books, newspapers, internet and educational programmes, he added.
Arthur Shears, chief technical adviser, TVET Project, Ross Alan Hatton, skills training for under-privileged adviser, TVET, Harunur Rashid, programme officer of TVET, and Sylvia Santosree Mazumder, principal of BMIS, also spoke on the occasion.
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