Visually impaired students write exams with laptops

Vijayawada(NTR District): For the first time in the State, Andhra Loyola College is supporting 19 students with visual impairments (blind) in writing exams with laptop.

Normally, visually impaired students will dictate answers and the scribes, who are student volunteers, will write them.

With the initiative of Higher Education for Persons with Special Needs (HEPSN), this year four among the 19 visually-challenged students including Arun Tej (BA first year), and Sheikh Akbar Sai, Jayakanth and Geethika (BA second year) have learnt to use laptops to write the examinations.

Instead of depending on scribes, they type answers on the laptop loaded with NVDA software.

This software will spell the typed text and also reads the answers so that the visually challenged students can make corrections in the typed text.

At the end of the exam, the typed script will be printed and sent for evaluation along with normal answer scripts.

Principal Fr Kishore said that with the advent of technology,

visually-challenged students can become independent and lead a normal life.

Coordinator of HEPSN project Dr Sahaya Bhaskaran said, "We have a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Bengaluru-based Enable India and the training provided by the Enable India is very useful in making the visually-challenged students independent and also help them get a job."