At the St Xavier’s Resource Centre at Fort, a visually challenged group of boys and girls sits before computer screens wearing headphones. But, before you mistake them for a bunch of students bunking classes to surf the net, you can spot them taking printouts in Braille.
The centre that started in September, 2003 has helped the visually challenged make significant in-roads into the web world, sparing them exclusion from the e-world of books, email, social networking sites and search engines. “You cannot change every obstacle but you can start by filling small gaps,” said Dr Sam Taraporevala, director of the centre.
Taraporevala, visually challenged himself, is a professor of sociology at St Xavier’s College and has been instrumental in setting up the centre for creating an inclusive environment for the visually challenged. He, however, makes it clear, “This is not a talking cyber cafe. We aim at the holistic development of the visually challenged.”
Taraporevala said, “The facility is not restricted to students of the college alone.” Of the 100-odd people using the facilities at the centre, only 30 are students of the college. Visually challenged students from other colleges are also trained at the centre.
With the latest screen readers that read aloud computer applications, screen magnifiers to facilitate people with low vision, optical character recognition software, Braille printers and cellphone screen readers, the virtual world is no longer a strange place for the visually challenged. “Apart from training in using various software, we also give lessons in English,” Taraporevala said.
Prashant Naik, who conducts training programmes for the visually challenged said the centre, with the help of a software named Daisy Book Production, a number of textbooks, with permissions from their publishers, have been translated from their printed forms to computer formats that suit the print-disabled. “With this a visually challenged person can turn to any page or paragraph on the page of the book just like sighted people,” Naik said.
Mohammed Ashfaque, an FYJC student from Bhavan’s College, was seen reading from a textbook on a computer at the centre on Tuesday. “I started coming just yesterday. But I like it here as I get to learn a lot,”
The centre is funded by several organisations and public trusts. It is also pursuing the issue of more accessible banking with the Reserve Bank of India.
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