Dear friends, The below pasted article is covered by one of our Access India friend Garima Goyal who is presently doing her internship with Hindustan Times. - Prashant Naik
Software gives new vision to visually impaired Garima Goyal, Mumbai, November 26, 2008 A Workshop for the Visually Handicapped at St Xavier's College. The Xavier's Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC), supported by SightSavers International, an international charity fighting blindness, on Wednesday conducted a one-day Print Access workshop for the visually challenged at St Xavier's College. An audio-visual called Accessibility 2.0 and a book, Write Right! Understanding Homonyms Better, were released. The workshop's objective was to inform and equip visually impaired participants in the use of technology that would make the printed copies accessible to them. "There are needs, we identify them and work on them. We wanted to create excitement about reading, joys of reading and gains of reading and learning. So we conceptualised this workshop," said the director of XRCVC, Sam Taraporewala. The audio-visual released by Elizabeth Kurien, regional director, Sightsavers International, India, highlighted the range of revolutionary to extremely simple technologies and products used by the visually impaired. The book, Write Right! Understanding Homonyms Better, released by Ramanlal Mahimtura in three accessible formats braille, large font and the electronic DAISY format - will help the visually challenged get their spellings right. "When we approach employers, we explain the technologies a blind uses. Since seeing is believing, so if they could see the audio visual film it would be more effective than talks," said Pallavi Kadam, deputy director of the employment department of National Association for the Blind. "My concern was how to tackle the diagrams and graphs, but the low-vision aids demonstrated have solved my problem," said Bhushan Vohra, a student of NL College in Malad. "My eight-year-old daughter is the first blind to have been admitted to a normal school in Solapur. I am attending the seminar to find the appropriate technology for her," said Jitendra Rathi, a businessman. HELP AT HAND • Write Right! Understanding Homonyms Better, the book released in three accessible formats Braille, large font and the electronic DAISY format will help the visually challenged get their spellings right. ^ Audio-visual highlights the range of revolutionary to extremely simple technologies and products used by the visually impaired. >From - NOVEMBER 27, 2008 – Hindustan Times – page 2 -- VISION WITHOUT ACTION IS MERELY A DREAM, ACTION WITHOUT VISION JUST PASSES THE TIME, VISION WITH ACTION CAN CHANGE THE WORLD. To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
