OUT’s ICT consultant Cosmas Mnyanyi revealed this yesterday in relation to the project to evaluate the promotion of disability inclusion in Tanzania, implemented by CCBRT.
According to him, the main objectives of ICT literacy programmes are to help the blind and the visually impaired improve their professional and personal lives, enhance their productivity and employment prospects, help them gain wider access to information and increase their ability to participate in and interact with society.
Mnyanyi said as a lecturer at OUT he would make sure people with disabilities do have equal opportunity to benefit from the full range of mainstream communication products and services.
He said, to many people, being visually impaired means to be automatically disqualified from fully taking part in various activities because of physical, mental and social obstacles visual impairment traditionally carries.
Acquiring ICT knowledge and skills can drastically change the lives of the visually impaired, he added.
It was, however, a big challenge for disabled people, particularly visually the impaired, to have access on learning and seeking information through computer. OUT, through a special education department, offers the programme to all people with disabilities, including non-college students.
To date 56 disabled people have already learned ICT, the ultimate goal being to ensure all the disabled in the country learn ICT. “We use a Non Visual Desktop Application (NVDA) in our programme so as to make them identify the kind of words that they type by hearing it through wearing earphones.”
But Mnyanyi clarified that not everyone who went to the centre was born visually impaired as some were born with normal vision, only to have their sight deteriorate in later years or had their vision damaged through accidents.
He said blind or partially sighted people faced a dual challenge in relation to computer technology, like they need to learn to use mainstream devices and software and understand how they work.
Besides, he said, they have to learn additional skills to use assistive technology such as screen reading software and magnification systems. If they cannot see the mouse pointer they learn alternative ways of navigating a screen and operating the software.
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Amina Yahya
Quelle/Source: IPPmedia, 21.12.2013
Bitte besuchen Sie/Please visit:
