Visually impaired students undergo computer training at ALC

About 22 visually impaired students of the degree and intermediate colleges in the city are now learning to operate a computer, in a bid to access quality education. Thanks to Enable India, an organization from Bangalore which has tied up with the management of Andhra Loyola College to provide assistance and training to visually impaired students.

Resource persons, who are also visually challenged have come to teach computer operations to the students using a screen reading software called ‘Non Visual Desktop Access’ (NVDA) for a period of three weeks. During the training workshop, students will be given an orientation of keyboard, initial level functions of MS Office, browsing and gmail.

“The attempt is to empower the under privileged and make them economically independent with this tool at their disposal which also enhances dignity of persons with disability. We had a one to one interaction with each student to learn their strengths. Most of them are new to computers but are very clever. We started off with keyboard and proceeded with creation of file, folder and edit a document. Students are now operating excel sheets,” said a trainer K Naveen Kumar.

Another trainer, Shiva Sankar mentioned that students will use headphones in the place of monitor through which they hear the command they type on keyboard. They are taught about shortcuts to use the main functions of the monitor. They are undertaking exercises on a regular basis such that they get knowledge of using computers in the long run without difficulty.

An intermediate student K Satyanarayana from Kadapa district shared, “I found it easy after two days to operate keyboard. If I place my fingers on keyboard, there is letter J to my right and letter F to my left. There are other alphabets in the lines above and below to it. I can give commands using shift keys as well,” he smiled.

“The students will be soon educated about browsing and accessing an email. We are also conducting a cricket match on Wednesday to encourage them. We found a few of them to be excellent in the sport,” added the training coordinator and lecturer of the college,” Sahaya Bhaskaran.

Another student D Prasanna Kumar of Chittoor district, who is a residential student of the institute said, “I had a little knowledge about using computers before this workshop. But now, I can do an excel sheet and type paragraphs and store them in a file. I aspire to become an IAS,” he added.

Majority of visually impaired students pursue education in the institution which manages to derive scholarships for them while another two from SRR and CVR Government College and one from SDM Siddhartha Mahila Kalasala are undergoing training for using the computer.