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Ethiopia: 'You See the Screen, I Hear It'
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The Reporter (Addis Ababa)
22 December 2007
Posted to the web 24 December 2007
Yelibenwork Ayele
Addis Ababa
The blind student sat by a desk, her fingers flying away on a keyboard connected to a central processing unit which was connected to an embosser but no monitor.
And, a Microsoft Sam or Mitchell spoke out the sound of keys she depressed on the board. To let the blind know that the typed letter is in upper cases, the speech sound changes pitch.
The speech synthesizer reads text displayed on monitor. Therefore, what sighted people see on the monitor, the blind hear. The software, Job Access with Speech (JOS), is a screen reader for the blind. It reads text from the screen but it does not tell the computer user what to do.
The embosser swallows thick paper with grinding sound and when it spits it out on the other side the paper is embossed with brail characters.
Dr Tamru Ewnetu, executive director of Adaptive Technology Center for the Blind (ATCB), who founded the organization in 2000 with the motto: "I do not have sight. But I have vision," is himself a visually impaired man who thought this technology could help many in Ethiopia.
Tamru lost his sight when he was ten years old to a hand grenade he was playing with.
Being blind usually deprives a person of privacy. "If I have a personal letter to read or write while communicating with a sighted person, I have to share it with a sighted person whom I call upon to help. This had always irritated me. The new adaptive technology can do away with this problem."
It takes about seven minutes on the manual brail to write one page. The speed is subject to the physical condition of the writer. It is a very laborious job and fatigue may slow down the rate. Another disadvantage is that the manual brail can produce text only on one side of a page.
But the computerized brail can emboss text on both sides of a paper. It embosses eight pages a minute. Therefore, a manually produced brail text book is twice as bulky as a computer-embossed book. When a brail book is produced for college students manually, the semester ends before the book production is completed.
Currently, ATCB is working with the Ministry of Education, Addis Ababa Education Bureau and other governmental and non-governmental organizations to make all books available in brail.
Blind students have been using tape records in class rooms but it has not been always easy. "You have to get permission from the professor first. Some instructors do not want to have their lectures recorded. And if a professor gives us permission one day that does not mean we can record his lectures always from that day on. A professor may say, 'Yes you can tape record' today and 'No, ...' tomorrow. Another problem was that tape recorders with good built-in mikes were not available. Or if they were, we could not afford to buy them."
Medium of instruction in the AAU is English, and sign language for the deaf. Though sign language has not been practiced to help those who can not hear, at least it is incorporated in the university's internal regulation. But no such provision has been made for blind students
A student remembers a certain university teacher who said, "I advise blind students not to join this department."
"The Addis Ababa University has a brail embosser but it is not using it," a blind student in the graduate program complained.
In spite of all the disadvantages attending visual impairment, some of the blind have been able to perform as well as their sighted counterparts and become professionals serving in different organizations.
The blind may not be able to do reading assignments and meet deadlines. They depend on the sighted at schools to read books in ink print. Brail books that are available in the country are not found in sufficient quantity and quality.
The brail is a unique identity of the blind who are attached not only to the sense of hearing, but also touching. "When I read brail, the information is quickly stored in my mind. Brail has great advantages. A blind person can enjoy reading brail under the blanket, "Dr. Tamru says.
"We covered the whole nation with over 200,000 copies of brail books in three years. Producing the brail books manually, it takes about one month to finish one book. But our center produces about 600 books a day," he adds.
After he went to Canada, Dr. Tamru had the opportunity to use the adaptive technology and do his job independently.
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"When I returned from Canada eight years ago, I shared this vision with government officials. I told them that I was able to read ink print. Everybody thought I had regained sight. When this technology was introduced, nobody believed in it. It seemed pure fantasy.
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