Reading Without Seeing
Date: 27-10-2012 & 28-10-2012
Place: Mumbai
Voice Vision organized a one and half day workshop on accessible
technology,
"Reading Without Seeing", in association with the Xavier's Resource Centre
for the Visually Challenged, (XRCVC), & Technical training Institute for
the
blind (TTI), sponsored by Sight Savers, under Mumbai Eye Care program on
Saturday 27th October and Sunday, 28th October 2012 at Dr. Radhakrishnan
Vidhyalaya, Mumbai.
The "Reading Without Seeing" seminar is an awareness and basic training of
accessible technologies for the blind being run as part of a nationwide
program under the DAISY Forum of India (DFI). The seminar was a
demonstration of different mobile accessible technologies along with
various
reading equipments, DAISY book players and magnifiers, Braille writing
devices & low vision aids made available by XRCVC.
Day one of the workshop, Saturday 27th October, focused on "Mobile
Accessibility". The participants received training in the usage of mobile
screen reading software's for three different platforms, I.E, Symbian,
Android and IPhone.
The seminar started with an inauguration and brief introduction made by
Ms. Rupa Mukherjee followed by an overview of the workshop and an
introduction of the participating organizations, XRCVC, & TTI done by Mr.
Rajesh Mehta. After a brief introduction of all the participants the
"Mobile
Accessibility" workshop was flagged off by Dr. Homiyar, [CEO TTI Pune],
who
highlighted the basic settings of the Talks (screen reading software) for
symbian phones. Then, Mr. Harish Kotian, Moderator of the AccessIndia
mailing list, gave the participants an overview of the apps on the symbian
phones like quick office, calculator, Dictionary, daisy2go, etc. This was
followed by a session on Android mobiles conducted by Mr. Chetan Penkar,
from Smartshehar.com, who highlighted the basic usage and various apps
like
GPS for android phones and gave information about the various screen
readers
available for android. The final session of the day was about the IPhone,
where Ms. Nidhi Goyal, gender & disability rights activist, gave the
participants information and demonstration of the accessibility of the
IPhone. The day's activities were brought to an end with the felicitation
of
all the trainers by Ms. Sushmeetha B. Bubna, Founder Director, Voice
Vision.
Day two, 28th October, the "reading without seeing seminar" began at 9:30
am.
The day's activities were flagged off by Mr. Sameer Latey (volunteer with
Voice Vision) who opened the floor for Dr. Homiyar, CEO TTI.
Dr. Homiyar demonstrated the usage of books in various formats, such as
Audio, DAISY books, E-books, etc. he also gave information about the
different computer screen readers available today and their uses.
Ms. Calveena, XRCVC, gave information on Accessible OCR systems, Braille
note takers, Refreshable Braille displays, etc. Mrs. Hetal Shah (volunteer
with XRCVC, gave a detailed explanation on Optical low vision aids like,
illuminated magnifiers, hand-held magnifiers, telescopic distance reading
device, Electronic video magnifiers, etc.
She also theoretically explained the usage of accessible tools of daily
living which were practically demonstrated later in the experience zone
such
as, talking BP monitors, personal weighing scale, talking calculator, pen
friend, etc. Information of online libraries, DFI, and websites from where
DAISY books could be obtained like bookshare, Inclusive Planet and Online
Braille Library (OBL) was provided by Mr. Sushil from XRCVC. Mr. Rajesh
Mehta, volunteer with XRCVC, demonstrated the usage of mobile dictionary &
GPS systems, and highlighted the various benefits of these applications.
After the lunch break it was time for the "Experience Zone", where
detailed
explanations alongside hands-on demonstrations were offered to the
participants, on features of the various accessible equipments and
infrastructure facilities. They were given an opportunity to touch & feel
each of the products discussed during the day. The workshop concluded by
5:00 pm after the Vote of thanks delivered by Ms. Sushmeetha B. Bubna,
founder director, Voice Vision.
We thank our co-organizers and facilitators, XRCVC & TTI for bringing the
Reading without seeing seminar to Mumbai and giving us information of all
the technologies available for us today. We thank all of the trainers
namely, Dr. Homiyar Mobedji, Mr. Rajesh Mehta, Mrs. Hetal Shah, Mr.
Sushil,
Ms. Calveena, Mr. Harish Kotian, Mr. Chetan Penkar & Ms. Nidhi Goyal for
conducting the workshop and providing the necessary information to the
participants.
We also thank the authorities of Dr. Radhakrishnan Vidhyalaya for
providing
us the venue and the canteen for the delicious refreshments served. We
specially thank the volunteers from Bhavans college, Andheri, Mumbai, and
Ascent Networks pvt ltd for always being on their feet and helping us. A
big
thanks to our Voice Vision committee for constantly coming up with new
ideas
and supporting us.
And last but not least, we thank all of our participants who comprised of
were diverse age groups from all over Mumbai and other places like, Pune,
Gujarat, and Chennai. All of them learnt something new from the workshop
and
were left with a sense of empowerment with the knowledge gained about all
the technologies that were on display.
Best Regards,
Sushmeetha B. Bubna │ Founder Director
Voice Vision
103, Synthofine Estate,' A'- Wing, Off Aarey Road, Goregaon (E), Mumbai -
400 063.
Work Phone: +91 22 40400000 │ Fax: +91 22 40400123 │ Hand Phone: +91
9820566010
Email: [email protected] │ Web: www.voicevision.in
Facebook www.facebook.com/voicevisionfans
Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes
life meaningful.
--------------------------------------
Ascent Networks Pvt Ltd, Mumbai, India
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