hello friends , can any body provide the pranavlal , moham afazal and other persons writen in the artical. thanks
navneet On 5/13/19, Shireen Irani <[email protected]> wrote: > May 12, 2019, 16:05 IST > > Assistive technology is enabling the visually-impaired get a fair shot > at programming jobs > It's interesting to observe Alok Kaushik at work. You can see him > typing on a keyboard but there’s no screen. There's no mouse either. > Kaushik, a senior application developer with an e-commerce platform in > the UK who works with complex software, is blind. So he has no use for > a screen or a mouse. And he can code just as fast -- and well -- as > the next guy who can see. Coming to his aid is an assistive software > called 'screen reader' that converts written text into speech. That, > essentially, has changed his world. > Alok Kaushik, an IIT graduate, is now working as a senior app > developer in the UK thanks to an assistive software that converts > written text into speech > Thousands of miles away in Delhi, Pranav Lal, a cyber security expert > with Vodafone, can code fluently in computer languages like Python, > Java, C and C++. He, too, like Kaushik, is blind. > “I started by writing simple programs to help me with my school work," > Lal, 38, said. Today, he can write complex code and has developed a > computer app – a speech recognition software -- for the > visually-impaired. > Lal is an avid photographer and has adapted vOICe -- an AI tool that > offers the blind the experience of live camera views through > image-to-sound renderings -- for the Linux operating system. Images > here are converted into sound by scanning them from left to right. It > associates elevation to pitch and brightness to loudness. “I 'saw' the > black hole using this tool,” Lal smiled. > “Who would have thought that the visually-impaired could do coding,” > said Arman Ali, executive director of National Centre for Promotion of > Employment for Disabled People, an advocacy organisation. "But with > technology, especially screen readers and artificial intelligence > (AI), the visually impaired are being integrated into the mainstream > workforce and are not limited to desk and accounting jobs anymore." > JAWS (Job Access with Speech) and NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) are > two popular screen readers while AI tools such as Microsoft’s Seeing > AI enables people with low or no eyesight to "experience" people, > texts and objects. > "Technology is still limited to a small fraction of India’s blind > population," Ali said. “We have to make it accessible to many more and > for that we need the government to look at disability as a development > issue and not a welfare issue.” He added, "For starters, the > government should make it mandatory for all websites to be accessible > with screen reader." > Mohammad Afzal, 36, who lost his eyesight in a car accident when he > was just 14, said programming for the blind these days "is no rocket > science". Employed as a counsellor with Saksham, an NGO that works > with the visually impaired in Delhi, he is busy teaching himself to > code. "I want to get a degree in cyber security," he said. "I am > learning Python, a programming language that’s similar to English and, > therefore, easy to pick up.” Afzal added that he uses apps such as > Ola, Swiggy, Google Maps, Twitter with ease on his smartphone using > screen reader. > To an untrained ear, the screen reader text sounds like a robot > reading out the hurried disclaimer at the end of insurance TV > commercial -- "Insurance is subject matter of solicitation…" -- but > the speed can be adjusted and so can the characters that you want the > reader to pick up. English is normally spoken at a speed of 120-150 > words per minute. Screen reader can read up to 450 words per minute. > “"Technology is still limited to a small fraction of India’s blind > population. We have to make it accessible to many more and for that we > need the government to look at disability as a development issue and > not a welfare issue” > -Arman Ali, Executive director, National Centre for Promotion of > Employment for Disabled People > Dinesh Kaushal, a 43-year-old NVDA development manager with Publicis > Sapient, an MNC in Gurgaon, didn't have access to such technology > while completing his school education, but he made the best use of > what was available at the time. > As a student in a special school he was told that he couldn’t study > maths after Class 9 because of his impairment. He was born blind. > Dinesh Kaushal works with Publicis Sapient as NVDA development > manager. Born blind, Kaushal pursued maths despite challenges in order > to make a career in software development > Kaushal believes that students with visual impairment should be > encouraged to study maths and english so that they too can get a > chance to make a career in fields such as engineering and finance. > “I missed out most of the curriculum from classes 6-8 due to the lack > of braille text books,” said Kaushal, who went back to studying > mid-school math using audio books provided by the National Association > of Blind while preparing for an MCA (masters of computer applications) > exam. Today, he's a successful programmer with impressive credentials, > like developing the first open source screen reader, Screen Access For > all. > While technology has made great strides in opening up the world for > the blind, some blips still exist. For example, the coders we spoke to > complained that many websites, including popular applications, are > screen reader-incompatible. > “Most developers do not have a good understanding of web content > accessibility guidelines. The end result is a software that cannot be > used fully by screen reader. This could be significantly limiting, and > we are forced to either move to alternative solutions or rely on > sighted assistance,” said Kaushik, an IIT graduate who lost his > eyesight in his 30s due to a rare genetic disease. Kaushal adds that > including persons with disability in creating design and technology > solutions for them can help in overcoming this challenge. > > Source: > > https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/...code/.../692... > > > Search for old postings at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > > 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 > > > Disclaimer: > 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the > person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; > > 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails > sent through this mailing list.. > > -- navneet dubey mobile 9425641836 c 98 near ram mandir, paraspar colony chunna bhatti ,kolar road bhopal [ m p ] Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ 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 Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
