Date:07/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/07/stories/2008090752190300.htm

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

IT to reach out to the differently-abled

Sangeetha Unnithan

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State IT Mission is preparing to launch a computer training programme for persons with mental, neurological and development disorders.

The programme is to be taken up under the Insight project that was launched under the Kerala IT Policy to bring the benefits of Information Technology to the differently-abled.

“The project began with free ICT (Information Communication and Technology) training for the visually-challenged in May 2007. Now, we plan to train individuals with other disabilities, including mental and developmental retardation. Efforts are on to develop user-friendly Open Source software solutions to train the differently- abled in ICT applications,” says IT secretary Ajay Kumar.

A national conference organised by Insight here recently, explored the possibilities of imparting IT-based education to the mentally-challenged. The conference, attended by experts from all over India, also discussed the employability aspect of the differently-abled in the IT sector.

“The conference was basically aimed at building a network with similar organisations and also for studying the current trends in India in IT training of the differently-abled,” said Insight co-ordinator Arun Ramachandran.

The Insight project is a joint initiative of the IT Mission and SPACE (Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment).

Since last May, 66 visually challenged individuals aged between 13 to 50 years have undergone training in basic computer application including Word Processing and Internet browsing at the Insight Resource Centre at Vellayambalam.

“The training in computer application was imparted using Orca screen reader, a voice-based free software. Since this software is in English, we are now trying to develop a Malayalam version of the screen reader and also a Malayalam version of OCR (optical character recognition) which can read out scanned matter as text,” said Vimal Joseph, SPACE assistant coordinator.