The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Technology comes to the aid of people with disabilities

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Sunday, Sep 14, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Technology comes to the aid of people with disabilities

Staff Reporter

Computers and other learning equipment being used to make them progress

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

Helpful: Minister for Women and Child Development P.M. Narendra Swamy with Bridget Ames, coordinator of PACER’s Simon Technology Centre, U.S., with a child at the inauguration of CATELST in Bangalore on Saturday.

BANGALORE: The little eight-year-old girl found it hard to grasp English letters. Studying in the third standard in a Kendriya Vidyalaya school, she found it tough to keep up with her classmates.

The child, suffering from learning disability, is one of the 15 students at the Centre for Assistance Technology for Education and Self Help Skill Training (CATELST) at the Spastics Society of Karnataka. With the help of computers and other learning aids, these physically and mentally challenged students are making efforts to learn and also know about what is happening around them.

Speaking about the little girl, who spends three hours a week at the centre, a trainer said: “We started with syllables and related phonetics of one word. A set of cards having these words was given to her as she heard it on the computer. We are really amazed by the way she has picked up in a month.”

CATELST, set up in collaboration with PACER Centre, U.S., and formally launched on Saturday, is trying to make accessible the benefits of technology to both children and adults with disabilities. It is also working towards familiarising parents, teachers, school administrators and employers with the possibilities created by the use of assistive technology.

Speaking at the function, Paul Ackerman, an international consultant on disability, said assistive technology not only helped the physically challenged people read but also opened up the world around them. However, he added, the assistance of Union and State governments was needed to take the technology to rural areas.

Shankar Annaswamy, Managing Director of IBM, which has donated 11 computers to the centre, talked about his company’s efforts to reach out to the physically or mentally challenged people. “We are extending the facility of voice-enabled web access system to some villages in Andhra Pradesh,” Mr. Annaswamy said. He expressed the need for facilities that would harness the potential of such people.

Minister for Women and Child Development P.M. Narendra Swamy said the State Government was ready to help NGOs towards this end.

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