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  • 6 months ago
Reporter Dominic Ramroop and camera-woman Kerry Patrick visited the Blind Welfare Association office in San Fernando where they learnt about assistive technologies making a difference in the lives of blind and visually impaired persons.
Transcript
00:00Tech Talk is brought to you by Flow. Flow inspired by you.
00:07So I'm here to demonstrate what first, what is a screen reader.
00:10As I said before, screen reading reader is a software that reads the screen.
00:16Currently on your iPhone you have voiceover.
00:20So if I want to open the phone, use swipe gestures, I can swipe from right to left.
00:309.38am, maps, camera, photos.
00:34Karen Gunness, a visually impaired IT instructor with the Blind Welfare Association,
00:39demonstrating how the voiceover feature available on most devices
00:43is making technology more accessible to those who are visually impaired or totally blind,
00:49allowing them to navigate the home screen and various apps on their devices with ease.
00:54Mr. Gunness also showed us a free app called Be My Eyes,
00:58which enables its user to take a photo of what's in front of them
01:02and then gives an audible description of the scene.
01:06So I'm going to take a picture of this document I have here.
01:08So what I'm going to show you all, how it's going to reel,
01:10so it creates a level of, again, independence of persons who are going to school.
01:14So you're going to school and you get like your handouts from teachers and so on.
01:18Read back the documents and share it back, copy and paste the text that is given,
01:21like the email or other word document and put it on your computer
01:25because you have synced programs like Dropbox and so on, you know.
01:30History, take picture.
01:31Let me see if I can get the hint of it here.
01:35Let me see, let me see.
01:38A brochure with the title empowering you to empower US in bold red letters.
01:43At the top, it has the name and contact information of an organization.
01:47Number 118, Duke Street, Port of Spain.
01:51Be My Eyes also offers a feature which gives human support.
01:55Also on this app, beside the AI feature,
01:59it has this feature here where it gets support, right?
02:04Call of Warranty.
02:05If I double tap here, a literal real human being will come on
02:10and my back camera here will turn on and I could ask the person,
02:14so what colour, for example, if you're matching clothes,
02:18you want to read a label in your kitchen,
02:20you want to read a document, for example,
02:22what is this I'm holding here?
02:23And they will tell me like that.
02:25So it's actually create a level of independence,
02:27which is very, very important.
02:29Gunness is urging blind and visually impaired persons
02:32to join the Welfare Association
02:34in order to get assistance with obtaining access
02:37to the software and technology which improves their quality of life.
02:41So right now we are in the process of
02:45we committed Torres Foundation for the Blind
02:48with the government of Toronto and Tobago
02:49to get access to the screen reading software.
02:53And there's another one, I use NVIDIA here,
02:55but there's another option called JAWS,
02:56but it's a paid option.
02:58So we're trying to get that organized,
03:00a daily license for everyone free of charge.
03:03So in that case now,
03:04persons will have their laptops and have the screen reader access.
03:07And the good thing about it,
03:08once you have a laptop and the screen reader access,
03:13you're able to do your tasks as I was demonstrating before.
03:17Until better could be done,
03:18as well as if you could, you know,
03:20see other technology devices become subsidized.
03:24Like for example, I talk, the talking MP3 player,
03:27and so forth because it will enhance your life.
03:31It will enhance your life in your recreation life,
03:33in your study life, in your education life, your job life, etc.
03:37He maintains that with the use of assistive technology,
03:40visually impaired and blind people
03:42can contribute even more to society.
03:45If there are like employers watching
03:47or looking at this program or so,
03:50principals or schools or whatever,
03:53I'm just appealing to you all,
03:55give somebody who's blind a chance,
03:56or visually impaired a chance,
03:58to work with you all,
03:59to come to school with you all,
04:00because you see the advancement
04:02and the benefits of assistive technology.
04:05And these are just a few.
04:07Dominic Ramroop, TV6 News.
04:09Tech Talk was brought to you by FLOW.
04:12FLOW, inspired by you.
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