What’s New
T-Base brings Santa's letters in Braille to blind children
Megan Harman, Ottawa Business Journal, December 14, 2006
An Ottawa-based communications company is doing its part to help more children participate in a popular Christmas tradition. T-Base Communications is assisting Canada Post's annual Santa letter-writing programme by providing response letters in Braille to blind and partially-sighted children from around the world. The Canada Post programme has been running for 24 years. It receives more than one million letters to Santa each year and responds in more than 20 languages.
Japanese inventors debut musical six-key keyboard for the blind
Cyrus Farivar
Japanese inventor, Yazaki Eletronics, has just built a one-pound keyboard with six keys that lets blind people take notes. It stores the data on what is presumed to be a flash drive. When you type, the keyboard speaks each letter as a tone and can be configured to type in Japanese, Chinese or Roman script. The keyboard can then be hooked up to a computer so that you can download your transcripts. Of course, all those features don't come cheap-it is priced at $1,750.
Diners try tasting blind
Noele Creamer, The Tribune Review, December 17, 2006
Borrowing the American Indian phrase, "Walk a mile in another man's moccasins", the Green Gables Restaurant in Jennerstown, Somerset County, created a new dining event that benefitted the Somerset County Blind Centre. Dubbed 'Tasting Blind', the event featured a six-course meal with six different wines—and a blindfold.
New Year gift to blind book lovers
Sharmi Adhikary, December 6, 2006
Voice of World, a Kolkata-based NGO, has a gift for blind book lovers. It will be releasing a Braille edition of Rabindranath Tagore's short stories, Galpo Guchha, during the Kolkata Book Fair. Tagore's stories have a unique flavour and are popular in academic and literary circles. Now, those who are visually impaired will get to enjoy such great literature. Every year the NGO releases one new book in Braille during the Book Fair.
Winning formula
Hard work plus determination equals success for mathematician Dr Sushama Agrawal
Ability to succeed
In each issue of beyond the I, this column presents a first-hand account of a visually impaired person's experiences in the 'real' world. Here, Smriti Singh shares her life as a student in New Delhi, expressing gratitude towards all those who helped her realise her academic dreams. She also articulates her concern over the plight of those visually impaired students who face all kinds of harassment
Looking back, looking ahead
The needs of India's disabled people have so far not been properly addressed by the Government who has failed to provide for them adequately. Our planners need to discuss the disability issue in its entirety. Malvika Kaul takes a look at the proposals and promises of the 11th Five Year Plan
Subscribers to free service can hear more than 200 newspapers
Isadora Vail, American-Statesman, September 13, 2006
Audible newspapers are available for Austinites who are blind or visually impaired. The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), a group dedicated to helping people who are visually impaired, has created a phone number in which a synthetic speech engine called Newsline reads the news over the telephone.
Training in IT for the visually impaired
The Union Ministry of Information Technology has embarked on a programme to provide job-oriented training in information technology (IT) to the visually impaired. The Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Dayanidhi Maran, said 20 schools, half of them in Tamil Nadu, have been selected for the programme; the rest are in Delhi.
A telephone- and e-mail-based service for problems related to technology
new service offers guidance on different aspects of assistive technology for empowering visually impaired persons. Anyone can call or e-mail their queries or even send them by post. You can also visit the helpline desk within the National Association for the Blind (NAB) premises.
The assistive technology helpline team, supported by the NAB Technology Training Centre Faculty, will resolve the caller’s problems and will, as far as possible, provide a solution at that very time.
On the face of it
Vikas Kapoor had the opportunity to get a first-hand experience of using Braille Face at the Blind Relief Association, New Delhi. Here, he explains its interface in brief to give us an idea of how it works:
To use the software Braille Face (developed by Satvir Singh), you need to start the main application (that is, Braille Face). Then, just minimise it and open Microsoft (MS) Word in the usual way.
Journey of a Lifetime
Business is ethics for Sanjay Dang who runs a successful travel agency
India is a great country, diverse and exotic, believes Sanjay Dang. Here, you find all the four seasons, mountains, oceans, national parks and so much more. In other words, India is a dream destination and taking you there is Dang’s passion and profession. The 39-year-old entrepreneur runs Le Travelworld, an agency that he set up in 1989 just after completing his diploma in management.
Running for a cause
n each issue of beyond the I, this column presents a first-hand account of a visually impaired person’s experiences in the ‘real’ world. Here, Guneet Sethi tells us about her participation in the Delhi Half Marathon, right from the time George Abraham invited her to take part in the run to the event itself
Can we change the channel?
Did your favourite newspaper or television news channel tell you that we have a World Cup Cricket coming up? Or that a World Chess Championship has recently taken place in India? Unlikely, because these are both for the visually impaired. And that makes the news immaterial for the mainstream media. Krishna Gupta discusses the issue
Let’s start with giving you a spot of news.
New talk and touch system reads maps and diagrams
B.B.C., United Kingdom
Almost every subject has diagrams, charts and graphics, or artwork. Normally, these graphics and diagrams are largely inaccessible to a visually impaired learner and totally inaccessible to a blind student. Now, T3 or Talking Tactile Technology will make lots of such information accessible.
Herefordshire's Royal National College for the Blind (R.N.C.B.), U.K. has created a new talk and touch system to help students use maps, charts and diagrams.
Garden of senses
Hannah Postles, Leeds Today; U.K.
Tracy Foster shows that visually impaired people can enjoy the scenic beauty surrounding a beach or a garden as much as sighted people. Her ‘See Hear’ garden proves it.
"It has been a challenge but I wanted to create the relaxed feeling you get when you are on holiday on a beach, and at the same time, recreate the sounds, textures, the scents and even the taste that you get in a seaside garden."
Blind advocate for China's weak runs afoul of the powerful
Joseph Kahn, New York Times; Beijing; July 19, 2006
This is the story of how a blind lawyer in China took on the authorities. Only a few years ago, Mr. Chen Guangcheng, a blind man who taught himself the law, was hailed as a champion of peasant rights who symbolised China's growing embrace of legal norms.
New software helps colour-blind people
Associated Press
Like many colour-blind people who have adapted all their lives to a particular way of seeing things, Mr. Harry Rogers feels his inability to discern red and green hasn't caused him much trouble over the years. Even so, there is one particular difficulty, making sense of charts, graphs, weather maps and other colourful material on his computer screen.
Now, eyePilot software will enable colour-blind people such as Mr. Rogers to navigate the Internet, identify colours on computers and make charts and diagrams.
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