CHENNAI: A Class 12 student at a school for the blind in the city had heard about a ‘sensor walker’, but got to hold it only at the first assistive technology devices workshop in the state for the visually-challenged. The workshop was organised by Karna Vidya Foundation, an NGO for people with disabilities, at Anna University on Saturday.
“These kinds of assistive devices will help us live independently. I have heard about the sensor walker, which detects obstacles in front of a person, but got to feel the demo only here at this workshop,” said T Vignesh, a student with visual disability.
The sensor walker, scan reader, font magnifier and sensor books were a few of the latest assistive technology devices showcased at the three-day ‘career sensitisation’ inter-collegiate workshop titled ‘C2C-Campus 2 Career’ for students with visual disability.
On the first day, the students called upon the government and private sectors to introduce all assistive technology devices for the visually-challenged to help them lead independent lives.
“There is a demand for scribes during exams. But if the government introduces the scan reader software in the exams, we can write the exam on our own, as the software will read the alphabets out to us as we type,” said professor K Raghuraman at Government Arts College, Nandanam. He is also secretary of Karna Vidya Foundation.
While these assistive devices were introduced in the state more than 10 years ago, they gained popularity only after 2010. “Even today, not many organisations use these devices,” said Raghuraman.
During the workshop, 32 students, who were trained by Karna Vidya Foundation on these assistive devices, were placed at IT companies including TCS, Amazon and Scope-E-Knowledge. “These people could do the job with the help of applications,” Raghuraman added.
D Saravanan, who recently got a job at the Southern Railways and is awaiting the appointment order, said, “I also got a job at a private company in their engineering department after training in this software. These kinds of devices should be used in all fields for the visually-challenged,” he said.
Over 200 students from St Louis School for Blind, Little Flower School and Government School for Blind, Poonamallee took part on the first day of the career workshop for the visually-challenged.
Only UG and PG students with visual disability were allowed on the second and third day of the workshop at Anna University.
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