Visually-impaired persons in Region 5 receive computer training

Visually-impaired persons in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) are now able to use a computer to create documents and surf the internet.
The new skill training was imparted during a four-month training programme organised by the Board of Industrial Training (BIT).
The programme, which sought to help visually-impaired persons to become more independent through the use of technology, commenced in July and concluded last week.
Orientation and Mobility Officer of the Guyana Council for Persons with Disabilities, Schemona Sugrim, has said the aim of the four-month programme was to teach blind and visually-impaired persons how to use the computer using a software called JAWS. Job Access With Speech (JAWS) is a screen reader developed for computer users whose vision loss prevents them from seeing the screen.
“The software enables the computer to speak. We would first teach orientation to the keyboard. So, basically, have them learn all the keys and then teach them the different functions and different combinations and how to get stuff done,” she explained.
Participants were taught how to create a document, how to use the internet, and basic skills of manoeuvring on the computer. According to Sugrim, after four months, about half of those who participated can now access the internet using a computer, and can also create documents using JAWS.
“We were able to achieve what we set out to achieve; so, about 50 per cent can do so effectively, whereby the others might need a little bit more work,” she explained.
She also said that accessibility features on a smartphone, while also a screen reader, are different from JAWS in that the accessibility feature uses the touch while JAWS uses a keyboard.
Mark Archibald, who has zero visibility, referred to the programme as very beneficial for persons living with a disability, who refer to themselves as blind. He said many of them were of the view they would never have been able to use a computer.
“As we got the opportunity, we tried to make the best out of it, but in the whole scenario, we are grateful for such, because we are in a technology world and we don’t want to be left behind with persons with disabilities,” he said.
The programme was a collaborative effort between the Guyana Council for Persons with Disabilities and the Ministry of Labour. It was run under the Board of Industrial Training (BIT).
Archibald has said that with the skills he has acquired, he is now in a position to train others from the Disabled Peoples’ Network of Region Five.
Meanwhile, DPN Coordinator Premaught Sookdeo, in thanking BIT and Programme Coordinator of the Guyana Society for the Blind, Ganesh Singh, for giving them the opportunity to be trained, said: “I could say that I have benefitted from it. I can go on my laptop now and type a document and I can save it and go back and get it. I can go on the internet, and it is very good for me. At first I could have done nothing like that.”
Sookdeo has said he is looking forward to continued training, and he is appealing to persons who are living with disabilities or may have dependents who are living with a disability to join the organisation. The meeting place is at Seafield, Number 42 Village, West Coast Berbice, or contact can be made with him by telephone number (592) 330-2218. Prior to this programme, an ExxonMobil-funded programme allowed members of DPN to be able to use a smartphone so as to use social media and other apps on the device – making many of them somewhat independent for the first time in their lives. (G4)