Lexington Based non-profit, Vision-Aid, celebrated the New Year and the festive occasion of "Shankranti" (the harvest festival popularly celebrated in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India), with a milestone event in its young history - The inauguration of the first phase of its Computer Center for the visually impaired in Visakhapatnam (Vizag) India.

On the bright and cheerful inaugural day in Visakhapatnam, India, twelve enthusiastic students arrived at the Vision Aid center for the orientation. The Vision Aid Computer Training Specialist, Ms. B.T.Revathi who also works as a lecturer for IT at Ms. AVN College, Visakhapatnam, introduced the program. Each of the 12 potential participants (10 Blind and 2 with significant vision impairment) spoke for a few minutes about their own background and expectations. The students came from diverse backgrounds and age groups - some of the participants were school going children in the middle and high school age group and others were adults in their mid 20's and 30's. It was a truly inspiring event for all the Vision Aid staff members and supporters.

Prof  Srinivas Devadas, Assoc. Head of Computer Sciences at  MIT, who serves as a volunteer Director of Vision-Aid (USA) and his wife Sulochana, inaugurated the center on Jan 12, 2006. Dr. Devadas spoke to the gathering of 12 aspirants and explained how Computers and IT can help change their lives

Center President Mr.M.S.Raju and IT Instructor Ms. B.T.Revathi presented a brief outline of the course, which would start in February, while the assembled students listened with rapt attention.  The newly created center will offer a 10-week intensive program titled "Introduction to Information Technology" for people who are Blind and Visually Impaired. The program will use Assistive Technology - software called Window-Eyes for Blind Students and ZoomText  for Low Vision Students to enable them to use computers.

After completing the course, students will be not only familiar with basic computer and keyboard usage but will also be able to use PC packages like Microsoft Word to create documents and use Web Browsers to access the Internet and send or receive email.

Computer Assistive Technology helps to level the playing field for the Blind and Vision Impaired. With sophisticated screen reading and magnification capabilities, such software can help the visually impaired to do virtually everything that a normally sighted person would be able to. With computers at their disposal, visually impaired persons are no longer limited by their disability and can reach for the sky - some have gone on to become expert programmers employed in leading IT firms like IBM which offer equal employment opportunities to people with disabilities.

The goal of the first phase of this program is to provide an introduction to Computers and Information Technology. Students who display aptitude will be encouraged to learn more advanced techniques at both the Vision-Aid centers and with Vision-Aid partners.

Response to the new program has been overwhelming. Many candidates are on the wait list for future courses. 25-year-old Pilla Sridevi, who is totally blind has completed her MA in English by correspondence but finds no avenues. She wants to start a home-based document-processing career if she can learn computers. 30-year-old Ravikrishna Chitta  also  blind, is a school teacher with Bachelors degrees in Arts and Education (BA BEd). During the orientation, Ravikrishna told the staff that is frustrated that his own learning is impeded because there is no flow or adequate  literature in Braille in Vizag. He wants to level up with computer skills so that he can learn through the Internet, and is particularly interested in accessing Computer encyclopedia. He hopes to continue teaching students despite his vision loss with the help of his newly acquired skill.

The Government of India mandates that 3% of all its jobs should be reserved for visually challenged persons. Unfortunately, most of these positions lie vacant because there are no qualified candidates. Vision-Aid hopes to change this by helping to create a pool of qualified candidates who can take up gainful employment in both the government sector and the booming IT and Call Center industry in India.

This program was made possible thanks largely to the generous support of individual donors and also a $1,000 grant from IBM, which helped to offset the cost of the expensive Assistive Technology Software that needs to be used for this program.

Students pay a nominal fee (less than $1 per class) and even this is partially or fully waived for the low and middle-income groups in the form of need-based scholarships. The first phase of the center has 2 PC systems for students fully equipped with the required software. In future phases Vision-Aid hopes to make more computers available.

This program is one of the many Vision Rehabilitation programs offered by Vision-Aid on a charitable and non-profitable basis in under-served regions. . For more details on other programs please visit
www.visionaid.org/services.html

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