Training the deafblind

On August 29, 2002, Asif Rangoonwala inaugurated the M. A. Rangoonwala Computerized Mini Braille Press Project at our Helen Keller Institute for Deaf and DeafBlind in Byculla to undertake the challenging task of providing computer training to the deafblind. We have also set up a workshop for their in-house employment.

The Institute made a beginning in this direction thanks to the generous donation from the British High Commission and Christoffel Blindenmission, Germany which enabled us to buy the basic equipment. Thereafter from January 2002, the Rangoonwala Foundation, UK has taken up this project for a period of three years. This will help with equipment, staffing, training of instructors and students, and rehabilitation within the Mini Braille Press.

The deafblind community being a microscopic minority in Asia, it has not been given much attention by the Government sector/special organizations. A lot of people with a desire to help do not have access to support the cause of a deafblind person and even minimal services are deprived to the deafblind person and his family.

Through the new project we will provide computer training to the deafblind using the Jaws Screen Reading Software and the Focus 44 Refreshable Braille Displays. The computer course would teach computers in all its dimensions which includes keyboard skills, fundamentals of MS Word, Duxbury Braille Translation Software (DBT), Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, etc. The use of Mountbatten Brailler will allow the blind/deafblind an instant copy of a braille print and vice versa.

Computer training is an ongoing program. Presently four students are undergoing the training. Thereafter applications for other students would be accepted not only from India but other Asian countries for providing similar training which is offered free of cost.

Our aim is to produce braille materials which are non existent such as tactile/braille graphic books, science experiments, classroom maps, charts, atlas, calendars, greeting cards and to create a circulating library of informative books not available presently in India.

The Institute has released a newsletter, Deaf Blindness in Asia. Through this organ the isolated deafblind and the personnel involved in their rehabilitation share a common platform.

Today getting jobs is a problem for the sighted, extremely difficult for the blind and practically impossible for the deafblind! However, this project would help them achieve the same.

All those interested in participating in the computer training program or their braille/tactile graphic products or the newsletter or help in any other way may write to Beroz Vacha, Hon Director and Consultant, Helen Keller Institute for Deaf and DeafBlind, Municipal Secondary School, South Wing, Ground Floor, Near S Bridge, N. M. Joshi Marg, Byculla, Bombay 400011, tel: 23087052/23019215, e-mail: hkidbind@bom5. vsnl.net.in

BEROZ N. VACHA