Gandhi meets visually-impaired at Raj Bhavan

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Express news service

Posted online: Tuesday , April 01, 2008 at 01:15:42
Updated: Tuesday , April 01, 2008 at 01:15:42

Kolkata, March 31 Terming the absence of professional computer centres meant for the visually-impaired a great hindrance in their development, the West Bengal chapter of the National Association for the Blind (NAB) demanded the setting up of a professional training institute in this regard on Monday.

Commemorating the bi-centenary of birth of Louis Braille — the legendary figure who invented the Braille script in 1829 — NAB secretary Kanchan Gaba said: “The best gift that Kolkata can give us to commemorate the bi-centenary year of Louis Braille’s birth is a professional computer training centre.”

She was speaking at the Raj Bhavan, where Governor Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi distributed talking watches, walking sticks and talking calculators to NAB students.

There are only four residential institutions in and around Kolkata for visually-impaired people. None of the schools located in Behala, Uttarpara, Rashbehari and Narendrapur are equipped with the infrastructure to impart technological skills to such people, she added.

“Job Access With Speech (JAWS) software is needed to upgrade the skills of visually-impaired. But we do not have training institutes to teach it,” said Gaba. The software costs Rs 50,000. At present, there are two amateur schools — Welfare Society for the Blind, a school in Majherhat and NIPS computer training institute in Bangur — that have voluntarily set up the infrastructure to impart JAWS training to the visually-impaired.

Bangur institute has 15 trainers, while Majherhat school has about 35 trainers, which are grossly insufficient to provide technical assistance to hundreds of students.

“About 100 students will receive a monthly scholarship of Rs 250,” declared police chief Goutam Mohan Chakraborty who so the president of the association.

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