School teaches blind to surf the Internet
- From: "BlindNews Mailing List" <BlindNews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <BlindNews@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 20:12:03 -0400
Inquirer.net, Philippines
Saturday, October 20, 2007
School teaches blind to surf the Internet
By Kenneth del Rosario
Last updated 09:57pm (Mla time) 10/20/2007
MANILA, Philippines--HABER TARALA, 18, NEEDS TO DO research on a class project
he has to submit the following day.
He can't go to the library so he does the next best thing-he turns on his
computer and surfs the Internet. After finding the information he needs, he
types his work and then prints it.
To other people, Tarala may seem like a typical student, making use of the
computer to help him out with schoolwork.
But there is one slight difference. Blind since birth, Tarala uses a special
software which allows him to use the computer the same way a sighted person
would.
The student picked up his computer skills when he enrolled at the Adaptive
Technology for Rehabilitation, Integration and Empowerment of the Visually
Impaired (Atriev), a computer school for the blind on Kamias Road, Quezon City.
Apart from surfing the Internet, Tarala also chats online with his friends and
sends them e-mails.
"I'm happy that I have become independent since I enrolled here in Atriev," he
told the Inquirer.
The school makes use of a screen reader or voice synthesizer called JAWS (Job
Access with Speech), a computer software which "reads" or "describes" to the
user what is on the monitor so that the user can operate the computer without
any help.
The software also "announces" what the user has just commanded the computer to
do by taking note of the keys pressed on the keyboard.
For students with poor vision, the school has another program: ZoomText, a
screen magnifier, which makes reading the text on the monitor easier.
"In our computer school, we make information available for the blind," said
Tony Llanes, Atriev founder and president. "This is the school where the blind
can see through computers."
The school's basic course, Access Technology in Popular Applications, teaches
the blind or those suffering from "low vision" how to use the basic word
processing program, spreadsheets, databases and presentations.
Students also learn how the computer operating system works, how to manage
computer files and manipulate the keyboard.
The course is two months long; classes are held from Mondays to Fridays.
"The biggest challenge is teaching students like Haber who were born blind,"
Lourdes Borgonia, one of the school's instructors, told the Inquirer.
She explained that it is quite difficult to explain concepts to totally blind
students because they find it hard to visualize what is being taught to them.
To make things easier for their students, teachers often use analogies.
For example, in explaining what a computer desktop is, Borgonia said she tells
her students to imagine a table on which is placed a telephone, a pen holder
and a vase. The table, she adds, is the computer desktop while the things
placed on top of it represent the icons on the desktop.
"Here in Atriev, we're not only after teaching our students how to use the
computer. We're also here to create awareness that our condition as visually
impaired individuals is just that-a condition. We're all human beings no matter
what," Carolina Catacutan-Sam, the school training and employment director,
said.
Llanes added, "We understand that development cannot take place without
considering the issues, needs and concerns of people with disabilities."
In 1994, he and his friends started holding informal computer training classes
for the blind in his house. Before long, the number of interested participants
grew until Atriev was born and formal courses were introduced.
Tuition for the basic courses costs up to P10,000, Sam said. Most of their
students, however, are subsidized by grants and donations from concerned
groups, she added.
Haber, who is about to complete the basic course in Atriev, said he is
confident he will make it in the real world alongside his sighted counterparts.
"That's because we're generally more patient than others," he said.
"I've overcome my disability. I hope I can inspire people like me to overcome
theirs. I once told Mama that I would make her proud one day by being
successful in whatever career I choose. And I will," he said.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view_article.php?article_id=95706
BlindNews Mailing List
Subscribe: BlindNews-Request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" as subject
Unsubscribe: BlindNews-Request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" as subject
Moderator: BlindNews-Moderators@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Archive: http://GeoffAndWen.com/blind
RSS: http://GeoffAndWen.com/BlindNewsRSS.asp
More information about RSS feeds will be published shortly.
Other related posts:
- » School teaches blind to surf the Internet
