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Tech empowering the differently-abled

A look at how technology has helped empower the different-abled and enabled them to live a fuller life.

Posted on: Monday, March 08, 2010 11:35 IST | Amrita Premrajan

Updated on: Monday, March 08, 2010 12:18 IST

You promptly call out to a friend across the room, answer a phone call, text a friend, read the day's newspaper, lazily surf through the internet or chat online ; doesn't take much of a thought before you do these mundane things, right? But these very things would have become nothing less than challenges, if you were differently-abled.

Out of 1.17 billion of Indian population, about 60-70 million are differently-abled. But how many of them do you actually come across in a day? As Javed Abidi, the disability rights campaigner and Director, National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) puts it, 'this minority is invisible.’ Added to their disabilities, the low priority given to enabling accessibility to things ranging from the public infrastructure to the web makes it challenging for the differently-abled to live life at par with the able. This is precisely where technology is increasingly finding its true purpose by trying to empower them and enable them to live a fuller life.

A significant step in this direction is Techshare India, India's only technology conference and exhibition promoting assistive technology for people with disabilities. Brought to India by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (UK), BarrierBreak Technologies and National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), and held at New Delhi, Techshare India 2010 showcased numerous accessible products and technologies for the differently-abled in February.

That’s where I saw her browsing through the exhibition stalls displaying the latest assistive technologies along with a bunch of chirpy young girls. Running her fingers over the wireless Braille Assistants, in one of the stalls, Sudha Patel was carefully listening to the representative at the stall and translating it in Gujrati for the visually challenged girls accompanying her. She is the General Secretary of National Association for the Blind, Anand, Exe. Member of Blind People’s Association, Ahmedabad and ex-Sarpanch of Changa village, Anand District, Gujrat - the first ever blind woman to be elected the Sarpanch of a village in India.

Emphasising the significance of technology in their lives, she quickly fishes out her cell phone and tells how the screen reader software like Mobile Speak and Talks installed on her mobile converts all the text-to-speech, enabling easy usage and navigation. I could definitely see that, as in less than half a minute she saves my cell number and in the next half she texts me a message, “Nice to see you.” She says that computers and internet are their gateways to knowledge and adds that it’s due to the availability of screen reader software like JAWS(Job Access With Speech), Kurzweil and Windows Eyes, that they are able to perform tasks ranging from reading, typing, searching, emailing to voice chatting, independently and with great ease. I give her a call some days later for an additional info and am recording the conversation on my cell. Noticing the beep sound she even gives me a tip to use Total Recall Call recorder software that enables beep-free call recording!

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