Centre for Internet and Society

Report on Training in Basic Computing for using eSpeak Hindi with NVDA

nirmita — 2015-06-08T02:28:25Z

The training was held at the Conference Hall and Computer Lab, Dr. Shakuntala Mishra National Rehabilitation University, Lucknow from January 20 to 22, 2015.

Guests who attended the inauguration

Dr. Nishith Rai (Vice Chancellor)
Dr. Akhilendra Kumar (Registrar of the University)
Dr. Avnish Chandra Mishra (HoD, Deptt of Special Education)
Dr. Adya Shakti Rai (Coordinator)
Dr. Vijay Shankar Sharma, Associate Professor
Sri Ashish Gupta

Number of participants: 50 students from various departments on the first day for the Bookshare and Training in Assistive devices and 20 during the eSpeak training.

The session on use of online libraries and use and demonstration of various assistive aids and appliances was done by Nirmal Verma from Perkins Products. This session was attended by the dignitaries, as it followed the inauguration.

Training in reading and writing using eSpeak Hindi was carried out on the 21st and 22nd of January. These sessions were attended by 20 students of the university. Most of the students were using JAWS as their primary screen reader till date. Hence NVDA was introduced in detail during the first session. All the participants were hand held in the installation and configuration of NVDA during this session.

The 2nd session on day 2 was dedicated to reading Hindi text using Espeak and NVDA. Most of the students were able to understand Espeak very easily, and were able to read and comprehend the given text.

The final day commenced with introduction of Hindi typing. The participants were guided for activating Hindi keyboard on their systems. This was followed by the introduction of the Hindi keyboard layout.

Important Achievements of the Training

A meeting was held with the Registrar and the HOD of Disability Cell of the University on the 2nd day of the training. The following points were agreed upon by the authorities during the meeting:

Formation of a dedicated Resource / Reading room for the Visually Challenged students of the University.
Permission was granted to the Visually Challenged students to utilize the main computer lab, till the establishment of the Resource room.
The University would allow the students to use Laptops for writing their own Exams in the future.
A 15 day training for new users of computers will be conducted in mid of March, after the semester exams are over.

The 2nd session was dedicated to typing in Hindi. The participants were able to type complex words by the end of the session. The training was concluded by solving queries of the participants and distribution of some softwares and participation certificates.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-using-espeak-hindi-with-nvda

Report on Seven Day Training in the Use of eSpeak Malayalam with NVDA

nirmita — 2015-06-04T16:35:03Z

The NVDA team held a training for 25 delegates at the Chakshumati Assistive Technology Centre, Trivandrum in Kerala. Akhil was the trainer. The event was held from April 18 to 24, 2015.

Participants' comments on the course

No	Name and address	Position	Remarks
1	Ms. Jomol K Paul, Kollamkudi House, Ayyampuzha P.O., Uppukallu, Eranakulam District. Phone: 9400929294	Student	Even though I studied in an Integrated school, we were not having a computer teacher who know screen reading software. So this NVDA computer course specially on the vacation time really encouraged my intrest in computer and I agree that I will do enough practise in my laptop given by our panchayath and want to write my examination using computers.
2	Ms. Murshid M, Mundil House, Pullala P.O., Karuvarakunddu, Malapuram District. Phone: 9745096850	Student	I learned computers few years back, but never had chance to work. This is the first time I am using Windows and NVDA is good.
3	Mr. Reshma Dileep, Nairserry House, Natika P.O., Thrisurr District. Phone: 8086143177	Student	This year after my first exam for my Plus 2, I could not hold my tears, since the scribe given by the school was bad and even she refuse to write what I asked for. So I think this time I can't get A+ like what I got in 10th standard. When I called Ram Kamal sir, after the first exam, he told me that, this is teh last year I should use scribe and he promised me to teach computer serious, so that I can write my exams using computer. After this course in NVDA dn specially with Espeak Malayalam I am confident that I can work with computers confident.
4	Ms. Aswathy P.K., Vadakekkara House, Veleppaya P.O., Thrisurr District. Phone: 9744404060	Student	I am yet to have my own computer and I never learned computer in my school. Now I am confident that I can use computer and NVDA perfect.
5	Abbin S, Subash, Palliparambil P.O., Karunagapally, Kollam District Tel.: 9847009767	Student	I had a training in JAWS from Chakshumathi's rehabilitation centre before and now with NVDA. NVDA is easy and good.
6	Subin S, Subash, Palliparambil P.O., Karunagapally, Kollam District Tel.: 9847009767	Student	My brother and I know JAWS, now after learning NVDA complete, it is very good and easy to use.
7	Nikil E.K., Eruttukuthi House, Mundery P.O., Nilambur, Phone: 9745016142	Student	From Orca to NVDA, NVDA is easy and very friendly.
8	Manav Sujith, Uma Bhavan, Vallamkulam, Thiruvalla, Kottayam District	Student	I learned JAWS before from Chakshumathi during Eyes Free Science Camps. NVDA is better than Jaws and reading Malayalam is super.
9	Akhil Kumar V A, Valariparambil House, Poothol P.O., Thrisurr District Phone: 8281691549	Student	I am in 10th standard this time and Iwill sure practise NVDA will help me to write exams using and tryto wite
10	Naseef V K, Alunkandiyil House, Kavunkapara, Palakkadu P.O., Malapuram District. Phone: 9048049359	Student	NVDA is different and easier than Orca, which I learned earlier.
11	Ms. Riji C.R, Chittirapally House, Chittirapally P.O., Thrisurr District. Phone: 8943887188	Student	This is the first time I am learning computer and being a Malayalam post graduate student, now I am happy that we can write and read Malayalam using Espeak Malayalam.
12	Sayyid Muhammed Shafeeq, Kizhakkepurathu House, Kalpancherry P.O., Malappuram Phone: 9567499493	Student	NVDA is good and I will be here after using NVDA in my laptop.
13	Ratheesh P, Punnasery P.O., Vengalur, Malapuram District. Phone: 8089603979	Student	NVDA is good and reading Malayalam in Windows is super.
14	Saraoz S N, Saroz Manzil, Kurikkada P.O., Andoor, Attingal. Pone: 729331750	Student	I am a Mphil student in English litterature and various voices in NVDA makes it better than Jaws.
15	Jithin R, Vilayail Veedu, Edanji Mukku, Chirayinkeezhu. Phone: 9633757018	Unemployed	Training was good.
16	Sibin R, Vilayail Veedu, Edanji Mukku, Chirayinkeezhu. Phone: 9633757018	Unemployed	I learned basics of using computers and NVDA is good.
17	Ms. Mereena Damiyan, Padipura Veedu, Anjuthenghu, Kadakkavoor P.O. Phone: 9745039239	Student	I had basic lessons of NVDA earier from Chakshumathi and now I am confident in using all featuers of NVDA.
18	Ms. Devika S Murali, Malavika, Chilampil, Sasthavattom P.O., Phone: 9048719330	Student	Super teachers, super class and I love NVDA.
19	Alimon K P, Kunhikannante Purakkal, Chettipadi P.O, Parapanagadi, malapuram. Tel.: 9142444919	Unemployed	I had an advanced level (8 months) training in JAWS. After using all featuers of NVDA, I can say, now we have a product that is par excellent than JAWS.
20	Rajith R.S, Devaki Vilasam House, Arrayoor PO, Amaravilla, 695122, Tel.: 8547149503	Former Jaws Trainer with NAB	I am now confident to teach NVDA also to my personal students.
21	Sreeja V.K, NSS Working Womens Hostel, Trivandrum	DAISY editor, KFB	I was exploring the Malayalam possiblities of NVDA for text to read Daisy books. Good.
22	Naufal T.N., Thandaruparambil, Vyipin PO, Eranakulam phone:	Trainer with JAWS	I can now professionally train students in NVDA and NVDA is undoubtfully good.
23	Nandu C S, Kattuvillaputthan Veedu, Alamkode PO. Phone: 9496195929	Student	NVDA is good
24	Unni. C S, Kattuvillaputthan Veedu, Alamkode PO. Phone: 9496195929	Student	NVDA and training was also good.
25	Prof. L. Unnikrishnan, Govind, Kaladi P.o., Thiruvananthapuram,	Professor	I am a late commer to digital world. While organising this camp I too learned to use NVDA.
26	Akhil P, Parrakkal House, Nilambur, Malapuram District. Phone:9497345025	Chief Trainer for the Course	Normally it is impossible to comver all portions of basic comuting and featuers of NVDA. But almost 80% of the students were very attendive and learned very quick.
27	John Paul, Arayaserriyil, Arthungal PO, Cherthala Phone: 9744358974	Assistant Trainer of the course	While assisting Akhil, I too learned quite a lot of NVDA.

The main focus of this 7 day training was to help participants understand the power of NVDA and start reading and writing in Malayalam.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-seven-day-training-in-the-use-of-espeak-malayalam-with-nvda

Report on One day Workshop on Use of eSpeak Hindi with NVDA

nirmita — 2015-06-04T15:43:22Z

This workshop was organized on April 11, 2015 at All India Confederation of the Blind (AICB) and was attended by 19 participants

AICB conducts one year, Advanced courses for Computing for the Blind and Stenography in Hindi and English. The participants of this workshop were the students of this courses.

The workshop began with introduction to NVDA, as most of the participants were new to it. The important configuration’s of NVDA were explained to the participants, who later installed NVDA on their desk tops and selected their preferred settings.

The participants were than given a text in Hindi for comprehension, and a small quiz was conducted on the understanding of the E-speak synthesizer.

This was followed by introduction to the Hindi inscript Keyboard. The students were also taught how to configure the Hindi Keyboard.

This was followed by typing practice. The students were well versed in Godrej and Remington formats, so they were made to understand the advantages of Inscript typing.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-one-day-workshop-on-use-of-espeak-hindi-with-nvda

Report on eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA Training Workshop at Tiruchirappalli

nirmita — 2015-07-21T01:32:10Z

The training workshop was held from May 4 to 8, 2015 at Centre for Differently-abled Persons, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli. Seventeen delegates attended the workshop.

Inauguration

The eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA Training workshop planned for 5 days (4th May 2015 to 8th May 2015) extensively for visually challenged college students and teachers was inaugurated on 4th May 2015 morning by respected Dr. M. Ravichandran, Registrar (In charge), Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli. Dr. R. Mangaleswaran, Syndicate Member, Bharathidasan University felicitated with august presence and speech. Mr. S. Shankar Subbiah, Assistive Technology Consultant and representative of National Association for Blind, New Delhi and The Centre for Internet & Society, Bangalore, and the sponsors for workshop gave a talk on the purpose of the Workshop and need for Tamil computing among the visually challenged in the present educational and employment context. Dr. M. Prabhavathy, Asst. Professor and Centre Head gave the Welcome address and Vote of thanks, thanking the Guests for their interests on empowerment of visually challenged and the participants for their earnest efforts to get trained on new technologies.

The well-equipped and accessible ICT lab of the Centre for Differently Abled Persons, at Kajamalai Campus, Bharathidasan University served as the venue for training. In order to facilitate the participants with more concentrated and time efforts, High Tea and Lunch were also served for the Training days at the Centre. Volunteers with Computer Science background were there to assist the Trainees and served them enthusiastically. The participant trainees were from Tiruchirappalli district and nearby districts like Karur, Pudukottai and Thanjavur of Tamilnadu state.

The workshop began with Resource persons, Mr. K. Navarasan, Mr. S. Shankar Subbiah and Mr. G. Kumaresan, Assistive Technology Expert continuing with the training activities on their expertise areas. The below were the activities conducted during the training period.

Day 1 - 04/05/2015

Forenoon

The whole group of Trainees were divided into two groups based on their previous knowledge on computer.
The former group consisted of the persons who were beginners to computers and the latter consisted of the trainees who have previous knowledge on computers.
A general overview on keyboard and its layout was introduced to the trainees to ensure readiness among the beginner trainees by the Resource person.
The keyboard layout and key mapping for alphabets, numeric, special keys and functional keys were taught to the trainees.
For those with previous knowledge exercises were given for reading, writing in English using computers with newspaper content, answer to question kind of comprehensive paragraphs with the Resource persons and volunteers coordinating.

Afternoon

The beginner trainees typed the keys that were taught on the previous session and practiced simple words dictated the Resource person and volunteers assisted on difficulties.
For those with previous knowledge, the exercises were elaborated and assessed for their readiness.

Day 2 - 05/05/2015
Forenoon

Tamil keyboard layout of Microsoft Windows for default Unicode Tamil Font typing were introduced to the trainees by the Resource person.
The whole group of Trainees were trained to identify the keys for vowels and consonants of Tamil language, type and practice by themselves with the volunteers supporting them, when they had difficulties.

Afternoon

The Trainees were trained to identify the keys for combinations, type and practice by themselves with the volunteers supporting them, when they had difficulties.
A play and learn session was organized to spell out connected words for typing practice.
To make the training workshop more live, the participants also were requested and exhibited their Tamil native talents and knowledge.

Day 3 - 06/05/2015
Forenoon

The Trainees were trained by giving large sets of two letter, three letter, and four letter units of words to type and practice. The Resource persons and volunteers corrected them when they had difficulties.
It was followed up by smaller sentences to be typed by the Trainees.

Afternoon

The trainees were made to listen to the Tamil text phrases with the help of NVDA screen-reader supported by eSpeak voice
The trainees were suggested to type out the phrases listened on a separate document
The trainees were trained on file operations like folder creation, saving to required folder and retrieval of the particular file. Similarly, for navigating, opening the file saved and continuing editing

Day 4 - 07/05/2015
Forenoon

Introduction on DAISY books and knowledge sharing on the available resources to read a DAISY book was done.
Demonstration on using Android based tablets and mobile phones to access the Tamil DAISY books given to the Trainees using Bookshare.org. The Trainees were also given information to subscribe for Bookshare membership and Book search and retrieval.

Afternoon

As a reinforcement on the learning process, a Quiz Programme was conducted to the Trainees on Microsoft Tamil layout and key strokes required for different Tamil words, phrases.
Usage of Tamil in Internet, and the browsers supporting the Unicode formatted content and the NVDA development efforts to support Internet browsing was discussed.

Day 5 - 07/05/2015
Forenoon

The Trainees were provided with Tamil HTML content to use the NVDA navigation commands to read the content and practice.
Reading content received in Email, Copying content from Browsers and pasting on Word document were taught and practiced.

Afternoon

Oral as well as Typing Assessment for Tamil keyboard layout, key strokes, words and phrases typing, file and folder operations of a document were conducted for the Trainees to ensure the training and learning process have helped them.
The Resource persons and volunteers ensured that they have learned the intended content and were confident to move ahead in Tamil computing using NVDA and eSpeak

The Valedictory Function

The eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA Training workshop conducted for 5 days (4th May 2015 to 8th May 2015) had the Valedictory function presided by Prof. V.M. Muthukumar, Hon. Vice Chancellor, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli who delivered the valedictory address and got the feedback from the participants in the presence of Dr. D. Muthuramakrishnan,, Syndicate Member, Bharathidasan University who felicitated the gathering. Vote of thanks to CIS, NAB and the organizers was given by Dr. M. Prabhavathy, Asst. Professor and Centre Head and the training felt much useful ended up with the National Anthem.

Feedback
Mr. K. Nallusami, Government School Teacher, and Mr. R. Jeyaraj, Student from Bishop College gave the feedback, how the training was helpful and would be useful by implementing Tamil computing in their daily occupation. They also highlighted on the materials and useful tips by Resource persons while working with NVDA in MS Word, Internet using Tamil computing given and learned in the training workshop.

Mrs. J. Sumathi, a Teacher who was not knowing Computer previously explained how the Volunteers and Resource persons helped learn from basic Keyboard mapping to Tamil Typing and it was a kind of magic happening to her and sister. They both came 100 miles away from Tiruchirappalli and stayed with their relatives for training. But, really happy to spent these days’ worth getting trained and requested the Organizers to conduct more such trainings for other Teachers of their District too.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-espeak-tamil-computing-with-nvda-at-tiruchirappalli

Report on eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA Training Workshop

nirmita — 2015-06-04T13:44:25Z

The training programme was held from May 25 to 29, 2015 at Differently Abled Children Section, District Central Library, Coimbatore. Twenty-one delegates attended.

Inauguration

The eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA Training workshop planned for 5 days (25^th May 2015 to 29^th May 2015) extensively for visually challenged school, college students and teachers was inaugurated on 25^th May 2015 morning by Mr. J. Karthikeyan. District Library Officer, Coimbatore. Mr. S. Shankar Subbiah, Assistive Technology Consultant and representative of National Association for Blind, New Delhi and The Centre for Internet & Society, Bangalore, the sponsors of the workshop gave the Welcome talk. He also explained the purpose of the Workshop with the need for Tamil computing becoming necessity among the visually challenged in the present educational and employment context. It is most required with the Government distributing Cost Free Laptops preloaded with NVDA and the equipment and technology cost becoming Nil. The Librarian of the District Central Library gave the Vote of thanks, thanking the sponsors, the District Library Officer for the opportunity to train visually challenged members of the Library on Tamil with NVDA, and placed a request to include the staff of the Children's section as they would be able to train the school going Children further.

The well-equipped and accessible section of the District Central Library, Coimbatore served as the venue for training. In order to facilitate the participants with more concentrated and time efforts, High Tea and Lunch were also served for the Training days at the Centre. There were volunteers to assist the Trainees and they served enthusiastically. Many of the students used their Laptops and those who did not have a laptop were given access through the computers available in the section. The participant trainees numbering to 21 including the section staff were from Coimbatore district and nearby districts like Tiruppur, and Erode of Tamilnadu state.

The workshop began with Resource persons, Mr. S. Shankar Subbiah and Mr. R. Jaganathan, a low vision employee of the Library and a resource export continuing with the training activities on their expertise areas.

Activities conducted during the training period:

Day 1 - 25/05/2015

Forenoon

The whole group of Trainees were installed or updated with the latest versions of NVDA

A general overview on Operating System, Applications available in Windows, various File formats, Screen Readers and other Assistive Technology like OCR, Scan and Read applications available for Visually Challenged were dealt with

The session was conducted in an interactive manner to understand and assess the computer skills of the participant trainees.

Afternoon

The major and sub menus of NVDA were explained to the trainees after few of them were new to that.

The Trainees were given hands on training by making them to change the settings, configurations by themselves and checking out the changes.

The trainees were given comprehensive passages to be read in NVDA to get accustomed to the voice modulation and asked questions based on it

Day 2 - 26/05/2015

Forenoon

Tamil keyboard layout mapping of Microsoft Windows for default Unicode Tamil Font typing were introduced to the trainees by the Resource person.

The whole group of Trainees were trained to identify the keys for vowels and consonants of Tamil language, type and practice by themselves with the volunteers supporting them, when they had difficulties.

Afternoon

The Trainees were trained to identify the keys for combinations of vowels and combinations with two letter, three letter, four letter word units given for typing and practicing by themselves as they picked up faster.

A play and learn session was organized to spell out connected words for typing practice.

To make the training workshop more live, the participants also were requested and exhibited their Tamil native talents and knowledge.

Day 3 - 27/05/2015

Forenoon

The Trainees were trained by giving large sets of five and bigger letter units of words to type and practice as a revision.

It was followed up by smaller phrases and then sentences to be typed by the Trainees.

The trainees at this point of time, introduced short cuts for navigation within the text, spell check, cut, copy, paste commands

Afternoon

The trainees were made to listen to the Tamil text paragraphs with the help of NVDA screen-reader supported by eSpeak voice

The trainees were suggested to type out the phrases listened on a separate document

Day 4 - 28/05/2015

Forenoon

The trainees were introduced to toggle language between English and Tamil for bilingual content typing and practice.

The trainees were trained on file operations like simple formatting, folder creation, saving the file in Unicode format to required folder and retrieval of the particular file. Similarly, for navigating, opening the file saved and continuing editing.

Afternoon

As a reinforcement on the learning process, a Quiz Programme was conducted to the Trainees on Microsoft Tamil layout and key strokes required for different Tamil words, phrases.

Introduction to HTML, various tags and formatting that can be done, Forms and fields, Email Clients and Browsers were given to the Trainees. Usage of Tamil in Internet, and the browsers supporting the Unicode formatted content and the NVDA development efforts to support Internet browsing was discussed.

The trainees were given HTML contents like Newspapers formatted to navigate and read for practice

The students were given downloaded online application Forms (as Internet was restricted to few computers in the library) and explained form navigation. They were assessed for their short cut using

Day 5 - 29/05/2015

Forenoon

Introduction on DAISY books and knowledge sharing on the available resources to read a DAISY book was done.

Demonstration on using Android based tablets and mobile phones to access the Tamil DAISY books given to the Trainees using Bookshare.org. The Trainees were also given information to subscribe for Bookshare membership and Book search and retrieval.

The trainees were also given information on different groups operating on Internet like Access India, Valluvan Paarvai online, the benefits and encouraged their participation for enriching their knowledge and practicing their language content writing, and development skills.

The Guest also had an interactive session assessing the participants Tamil computing skills by questions and also introduced them to one another Tamil keyboard Layout 'Anthaga Kavi' developed by visually challenged community. He recommended them to try that after practicing the present learned Microsoft layout for more easier typing experience.

The Valedictory Function

The eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA Training workshop conducted for 5 days (25^th May 2015 to 29^th May 2015) had a brief Valedictory function presided by Mr. G. Venkateshan, State Bank of India Zonal Office, Coimbatore and an experienced visually challenged person on Tamil computing who delivered the valedictory address and stressed on Tamil computing skills necessity for higher education and employment opportunities. The District Library Officer, Mr. J. Karthikeyan also felicitated the gathering and distributed the Certificates to the participants. Vote of thanks to CIS, NAB and the organizers was given by Mr. Muthu Venkatasubramanian, Co-ordinator for the Differently Abled Children section and a visually challenged participant. The training felt much useful and requested to extend in batches for more persons ended up with the National Anthem and Lunch served for all.

Feedback

Mr. Ashok, a student of Final year graduation felt how easy it was to learn Tamil typing and he is looking forward to eagerly participate in groups and though he had subscribed to Bookshare, he had not read Tamil books. But, now he is confident to download and read Tamil content.

Mr. S. Sabareesh, Student from Loyola College, Chennai felt that his vacation to his native town gave him a good learning experience on Tamil computing and various other concepts, shortcuts for efficiently using NVDA.

Mr. Jeeyawolhok, a Government School Teacher present felt that now it is necessity of visually challenged persons to work with Computers even in the field of Teaching profession and this Training gave him more confident as being a Tamil teacher.

Ms. Loganayaki, an English Literature student felt that she did not think Tamil typing was so easy before and now would read large volume of e-contents of Tamil novels available in the Library as well as practice her Tamil writing skills on Computer.

Mrs. Saraswathi, the mother of Mr. Shankar, 10^th Grade student and participant trainee gave a feedback that she was worried on how she had to read the whole Tamil books for her son. Reading it as e-content through NVDA and eSpeak voice becoming familiar to her son made her job easy. And, he could also practice and revise his lessons like any other child by typing the contents in Tamil as others do by writing. She thanked the organizers for the workshop and wanted one such run for school children with visual impairments from 8^th standard onwards conducted by school or at least in the Library regularly. This would help them in their higher standards and education for being more independent and not to depend on readers for their academic requirements.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-espeak-tamil-computing-with-nvda-training-workshop

Report on Training in Basic Computing with use of NVDA and eSpeak in Hindi

nirmita — 2015-06-04T01:58:34Z

The training programme was held on February 5 and 6, 2015 at National Association for the Blind in R.K. Puram, New Delhi. Fifteen delegates attended.

The training at NAB at Delhi had representations from organizations serving the blind from all across Delhi. Those who took part were either Heads of IT Department or computer instructors. The aim of inviting the IT heads and computer instructors was to promote the use of NVDA in their training programmes and also facilitate the reading and writing in Hindi.

The workshop at the Blind Relief Association was mainly attended by Special Educators for the Blind. The aim of promoting use of NVDA and knowledge of reading and writing in Hindi using eSpeak amongst these special educators was that these special educators would be working closely with the blind community. If the special educators are sensitized, the use of regional languages can be maximized.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-in-basic-computing-with-use-of-nvda-espeak-hindi

Report on Training in Basic Computing with use of NVDA and eSpeak in Tamil

nirmita — 2015-07-20T15:23:42Z

The training programme was conducted on January 27 and 28, 2015 at Karna Vidya Technology Centre, [KVTC] Guindy, Chennai. A total of 15 delegates attended the show.

We are extremely grateful to Raghuram, Coordinator, KVTC and Shankar from Bookshare, Chennai for organizing the Tamil training within 48 hours of notice, as the said workshop was originally planned at NIVH, Chennai. Due to last minute widrawal of NIVH, Raghu and Shankar excepted the challenge of hosting the training.

The 15 participants mainly comprised of computer teachers and students pursuing higher studies. The Tamil reading and writing training was conducted by E. Sakthivel and S. Pandiyaraj.

The follow up 15 day training for Tamil will be conducted at Coimbatore and it will be conducted by the above mentioned trainers. The 15 day event will be planned by Shankar and Raghuraman.

The participants of the workshop were also shown the assistive devices and made aware about the ADIP scheme. KVTC has now started registering persons with Blindness for the ADIP scheme and shall send in their data to Saksham Delhi.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-in-basic-computing-with-use-of-nvda-e-speak-in-tamil

Report on Training in Basic Computing with use of NVDA at NAB, Delhi

nirmita — 2015-06-04T01:19:28Z

The objective of the workshop was to help the staff members understand NVDA and its functioning with the Indian languages so that they efficiently attend to the queries of the visitors and the callers at help desk.

Five staff members lead by Mr. Ajay Sharma, Project Manager of the technical unit at National Association for the Blind, R.K Puram, Delhi had attended a training workshop. Concepts related to the NVDA were discussed in the workshop. It was an interactive workshop. Ms. Suman Dogra had conducted the workshop. The staff members had certain doubts with NVDA, that were cleared. Some new information was imparted to the staff members. The help desk was made to understand the functioning of the language section of NVDA. This will help callers to configure their native language on their machines.

Some tips were given to the staff members on imparting training in NVDA in coming training modules at National Association for the Blind. Object navigation was explained to the computer instructors. The team at National Association for the Blind is informed that they can inform about any of the problem in NVDA to the Indian development team.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-in-basic-computing-with-nvda-at-delhi

Report on Training in Basic Computing with use of NVDA and eSpeak in Marathi & Konkani

nirmita — 2015-06-03T15:47:18Z

The training programme was organized at International Youth Hostel and Estrila du Mar, sponsored by Rotary Club of Goa and Estrila Du Mar from April 20 to 22, 2015. Seventy-seven delegates attended the training programme.

The Rotary club of Goa organized a RYLA for the visually challenged youth of Goa and Maharashtra. The event was sponsored by Estrila Du Mar. The event had components of career counselling, introduction to assistive technology, demonstration of assistive aids and appliances and reading and writing in Marathi and Konkani. The participants were extremely eager to learn about the different reading and writing solutions. They were given hands on demonstration of all the assistive devices.

The programme was inaugurated by the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Ministry of Goa. This was followed by a session on "Needs Assessment" from the participants. Most of the participants expressed a strong desire to learn "How to Read and Write in Marathi and Konkani". The main sessions were conducted by Taha Haaziq, Resource Centre Coordinator, Central Library, Goa, Miss Zainab, Coordinator, Bookshare India and Dr. Homiyar.

The second day of the programme was dedicated to demonstrations of reading solutions. Participants were encouraged to listen to the eSpeak Synthesiser and understand the comprehension in Marathi. Most were comfortable listening to an e-copy of Sakal, a Marathi daily.

Many participants who had Android phones with them tried to read in Marathi using eSpeak at the end of day 2.

Day 3 was reserved for writing in Marathi. The participants who had basic knowledge of computers were encouraged to practice the in-script keyboard layout. They managed to write simple words at the end of the session.

The three day event was validated by the President of Rotary Club of Goa. The participants expressed about their learnings from the event.Most of them said that they had gained a lot of new knowledge and wanted to attend a short term basic computing workshop, for improving their skills. All the participants received a gift hamper containing CD’s loaded with set up of NVDA along with its tutorials.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-in-basic-computing-with-use-of-nvda-e-speak-marathi-konkani

Report on Training in Basic Computing with use of NVDA and eSpeak in Assamese

nirmita — 2015-06-03T02:44:33Z

This training was held at Monfort School in Guwahati on May 9 and 10, 2015. Laishram Lingappa was the trainer. Eleven participants attended the programme.

Situated in the backdrop of steep hills, Monfort school was the perfect location for training in use of eSpeak Assamese. The delegates came from all across Assam, and represented various organizations. The participants were extremely impressed with the quality of the eSpeak Assamese, and were able to follow the text-to-speech (TTS) very fast.

The visit to Gauhati University’s Cell for the Differently Abled was also a grand success. A presentation about the power of NVDA and eSpeak was made in front of the Chairman of Gauhati University, Registrar, Joint Registrar, Head of the Cell for the Differently-abled, Chief Librarian and the Chief of the Computer Section.

At the end of the two hour presentation, it has been decided that the Cell for the Differently-abled will take the lead in the following aspects:

Preparing a complete list of Persons with Blindness studying in various Colleges of Gauhati University

Organizing a Sensatising workshop for the identified Persons with Blindness.

Negociate with the Publishers associated with the Gauhati University, for Accessible Bookks.

Identify staff who could be trained in making books Accessible in both English and Assamese.

NAB – Delhi will provide Technical support to the Cell for the Differently Abled, as and when required.

A visit was also undertaken to the Gauhati Blind school, where in the students were presented with the different accessibility solutions. They were shown the Smart Cane along with the Plextalk Vachak. Most of the students took keen interest in knowing about the various solutions including eSpeak Assamese. Fortunately the school is supported by some very enterprising young Blind persons, who are extremely good in Technology. These volunteers have taken up upon themselves to teach computers to the students of Gauhati Blind School.

A 15 day follow up training will also be organized either at the sister organization of Monfort school in the district of Tora or the Cell for the Differently-abled in Gauhati.

Our thanks to Laishram for organizing the four day trip to Gauhati.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-in-basic-computing-with-use-of-nvda-espeak-assamese

Report on Training in Basic Computing with use of eSpeak and NVDA in Oriya

nirmita — 2015-06-03T01:24:53Z

This training was held at Orissa Association for the Blind at Bhubaneswar from February 8 to 10, 2015. Thirty six delegates attended the programme.

The highlight of the training was that we received an overwhelming response from the participants. The training had to be conducted in the main auditorium of the Orissa Association for the Blind, instead of the computer lab, which had only a capacity of seating 10 trainees. The participants acknowledged the importance of Oriya support for their career growth. There was a lot of excitement amongst the participants to know how to read and type in Oriya.

The eSpeak training was preceded by a Career Counseling Workshop, which highlighted the importance of Reading and Writing in the local vernacular language for a career growth. The main challenge faced during the training was that there was virtually no material available in Orriya on the internet in Unicode font, for the participants to practice reading. Hence the participants had to first learn typing and than create their own little lines to read.

The training was conducted by Ganshyam Mohante, who had also contributed as the tester for Oriya. The Inauguration was attended by the whole managing committee of Orissa Association for the Blind, who had specially assembled for the event.

The Orissa Association for the Blind is also very keen on organizing the 15 day follow up programme, where in more persons will be trained in reading and writing in Oriya, along with the knowledge for using basic computers.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/training-in-basic-computing-with-use-of-espeak-nvda-odia

Report on 15 days Training in Basic Computing with use of NVDA and eSpeak in Oriya

nirmita — 2015-05-10T13:41:20Z

This programme was the first of its kind in the state of Orissa. The participants were mostly completely new to using computers and were also completely from the vernacular background. This training demonstrates that many more such regional level trainings should be organized in order to reach the untouched population of persons with blindness, and expose them to the advantages of today’s technology.

Newspaper Report

Post News Network

Bhubaneswar, April 16: Several visually impaired citizens living in the state Thursday got a reason to celebrate. The Vocational Rehabilitation Centre for Handicapped (VRCH), an outfit of the Central government, launched a training programme on the day for a bunch of men and women suffering from visual imparity. They would be imparted training on e-learning software, which can assist them in getting acquainted with the different aspects of computer operations.

The 15-day e-learning programme witnessed coming together of several physically challenged citizens of diverse age groups, from different parts of the state. The training is being provided by the government unit free of cost. The software, which will help the blind read texts on a computer, is known as Non-Visual Desktop Access (NVDA). It helps in bridging the chasm between die visually impaired people and the technology It facilitates communication between them through a» audio device. The software reads out text on the screen to the differently able, who are unable to read screen texts due to vision difficulties.
“Although the software came into existence in 2006 but it gained popularity slowly. The main advantage of this software is its diversity. It has now inculcated several other Indian languages, including Oriya into it. So now people from different ethnic groups can access texts in their mother tongue.

Moreover, the software is free for its users and can be downloaded easily from the Internet. Users of this software can now read computer files, use social networking sites and can even read all available resources on cyberspace,” said Mrutunjay Kumar, Member of All India Association for Blind who will impart teaching on the software to the blind students. Kumar himself suffers from visual imparity. Similar e-learning software, however, already existed to help the blind people use computers, but its high annual subscription amount and limited language options narrowed the usage of such software.

NVDA being subscription free and diverse is expected to cater to the larger interests of the visually impaired citizens of the state and the country Pokhariput-based VRCH on whose campus the training programme is being held was overwhelmed by the response it garnered from the public. Officials of the institution also assured all possible support for the participants. “The main aim of the training-programme is to give them a platform to strengthen their skills. The whole programme is totally free. No participation fees will be levied on the trainees. Moreover, special arrangements have been made for free accommodation and food for the trainees so that they can focus only on training,” said Ram Kishore Sharma, assistant director, VRCH.

Earlier in the day, many outgoing trainees, who completed some skill development training at the institution, were felicitated by the institution. Ashok Behera, deputy director, State Directorate of Welfare of Persons with Disabilities, was present during the occasion as chief guest and felicitated several students who had successfully completed their training at the institution.

Venue: Institute of Social Work and Research, Bhubaneswar, Orissa.
Dates: 16th – 29th April 2015
No. of Participants: 30
Trainer: Mritunjay Kumar.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-in-basic-computing-with-use-of-nvda-and-e-speak-in-oriya

Report on 15 days Training in Basic Computing with use of NVDA and eSpeak in Gujarati

nirmita — 2015-05-10T11:23:42Z

This programme was aimed at high school students who were completely new to computers. The aim of the workshop was to empower the students to at least read and write using eSpeak Gujarati with NVDA within the 15 day duration.

Venue: Shree Navchetan Andhajan Mandal Madhapar - Kachchh.
Dates: April 2 to April 16, 2015
Trainer: Mahendra Chudasma.
Language: Gujarati
Number of Participants: 15

Most of the participants achieved the target and were also able to manage simple tasks like opening and saving documents in Word and also had the opportunity of gaining knowledge of the use of Android phones. Our thanks to Mahendra for ensuring that the participants came out with flying colours at the end of the workshop.

Training Schedule

April 2

Introduction
Information about Computer and its Parts
Keyboard orientation. Function keys, alphabets keys and number keys and number pad
About desktop, start menu, notification and taskbar
2: how to press 2 keys windows plus M. and alt plus F4

April 3

How to start Microsoft Office and Word
How to type words and how to read it. And modify delete and add alphabets and word
Modify spellings

April 4

Practice on topics covered in the first two days
How to start narrator without screen reader and how to install screen reader
How to read NVDA's commands by its help

April 5

How to formatting file by title, bold, increase and decrees fonts, make underline and justified and save it
How to make folder on desktop and how to search and copy file in the documents and paste in folder

April 8

Information about notification
How to set clock by notification and control panel
Difference between file and folder
How to play song with media player, VLC and Winamp
How to search in file and folders in your computer
Run Windows

April 9

Internet's information
Internet short commands
Read news in English, Gujarati, and Hindi newspaper through online

April 10

How to short navigate in internet by h for heading, t for table, l for list and insert f7 for links
About check box, combo box, radio button and button
How to create mail, and read it and compose mail and send it. With bcc and cc

April 11

About job related sites and banks sites
Searching through Google

April 12

How to download
Some general questions on computer practice

April 13

Practice for last days and some questions answers
Information about some messengers Facebook and Skype with its demonstration
How to create account and how to use these

April 14

Practice of old topics
Information about scanner with its demonstration
And demonstration with EnAble India EYE Tool and EnAble India Spelling Tool

April 15

Revision for complete course of NVDA of 15 days

April 16

Information about Android on students demand

List of Students for Gujarati Training

Garva Ajay Valjibhai
Chauhan Jayendrasinh Popatsinh
Meriya Pravin Karamshibhai
Gadhvi Hari Karsanbhai
Jat Razak Haronbhai
Koli Mavji Ramjibhai
Ganava Mital Panglabhai
Chawda Bharti Popatbhai
Maheswari Sunita Sumarbhai
Goyal Dipin Ravjibhai
Jeda Hisan Samirbhai
Patel Ritesh Bipinbhai
Raval Bhumi Nitinbhai
Mokariya Shardaben Girishbhai
Jain Alpaben Manojbhai

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-training-in-basic-computing-with-use-of-nvda-e-speak-gujarati

Report on the Progress in Manipuri Language Testing

nirmita — 2015-05-10T09:38:57Z

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is doing a project on developing a text-to-speech software in 15 Indian languages. This blog post captures the key updates of the work done by CIS team for Manipuri language.

Manipuri was added to e-Speak under this project. The language was refined to complete the basic support with the help of the language tester from Imphal, Manipur. Our team had visited Imphal, Manipur to work with the language tester on December 22, 2014. The following changes were made in Manipuri language:

Entire number dictionary was introduced and modified.
Specific pronunciation for 100 to 900 was added.
All alphabets were modified as per acceptable pronunciation.
Pronunciation of consonants was corrected.
Rules for consonants at the beginning without diacritical mark were added and corrected.
One word as example (fOl – fruit) was added as exception for /fO/ at the beginning.
Modification of nasal, sound generated bu /uNgo was done.
Modification of pronunciation of words with birsorga was done.
Modification of pronunciation for words ending / using /khandat-ta done. Was made.
Pronunciation of joint alphabet like "khio", "ra" done. Was added.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-progress-in-manipuri-language-testing

Comments to the GIGW

nirmita — 2015-05-09T16:00:11Z

The Centre for Internet and Society submitted its comments to the National Informatics Centre on April 30, 2015.

We the undersigned would like to commend the NIC for taking a leadership role in promoting eaccessibility through the notification of the Guidelines for Indian Government websites (GIGW) in 2009. Undoubtedly, web accessibility plays an ultimately crucial role in enabling and enhancing citizen participation and access to information. The development of assistive technologies both hardware and software has increased the potentiality of the constituency of persons with disabilities and elderly to become one of the largest consumer groups on the Internet. We use the word ‘potentiality’ because the current information ecosystem on the Internet, comprising information through text, electronic documents, audio, video and other multimedia presented through Indian websites are inaccessible for persons using screen readers and other technologies.

Despite the passage of 6 years since the GIGW, there has been negligible progress on the front for making Indian government websites conform to the notified standards. An evaluation of accessibility of government websites carried out in 2012[1] demonstrated that the majority yet remained inaccessible, with very slow improvement in the situation thereafter. Our interaction with government departments and government web developers revealed that there was still a relative lack of awareness of the need to conform to these guidelines coupled with an absolute lack of knowledge on how to implement them. Given this background, we submit our recommendations as below:

Mandatory: Since experience has demonstrated that voluntary compliance has not worked to bring about accessibility in government communication through the Internet, it is necessary that these guidelines be made mandatory with a strict deadline beyond which noncompliance becomes an offence, to ensure that it is taken seriously. This is now partly in place since the notification of the National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility[2] by the DEITy in Oct 2013. The legal mandate around this will only strengthen once the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill comes in force. Hence, the present recommendation.
WCAG 2.0 level AA compliance: We recommend that WCAG 2.0 level AA be specified as the standard for minimum level of compliance in the guidelines. This is recommended for several reasons.
a. These are globally accepted standards which have been well researched
b. These have assigned success criteria for each guideline, which is not present in the current draft of guidelines, thus enabling a developer to know whether the criteria have been adequately met.
c. The task of review is a constant one which is being undertaken by experts around the world through various study groups and technical committees, which will ensure that updates are timely and keep abreast of new developments. Hence, the burden of review will not be upon us. At present, we also do not have the domain expertise on this subject which is available with W3C and elsewhere globally. Instead, efforts may be focused upon making any additions to the WCAG 2.0 which are required to make them more comprehensive in the Indian context.
Meeting success criteria: For each accessibility checkpoint / guideline, there should be defined success criteria to ensure that the implementation meets acceptable levels. There should be Objective measures in place to have technical validation of all the websites. There needs to be a process defined to validate all websites on WCAG accepted tools to ensure compliance to technical standards. The recommended procedure provided by the W3C for evaluating websites known as the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology 1.0[3] (WCAG-EM) may also be followed in this regard.
Onus of implementation: The onus of complying with the Guidelines must be placed on the top management in an organisation/ department/ ministry. Someone like a board member or other senior person.
Accessibility audit: There should be an accessibility audit after the development of a website by a 3rd party entity independent of the website developer and website owner.
Accessibility audit agency: There must be a provision to setup an entity which can perform access audit for all government websites. The agency may include government officials from various departments, ministries or autonomous bodies, leading accessibility firms and must include end users.
Content updation: To ensure the accessibility of new content that is added to a website on a regular basis, there should be a defined accessibility process so that an existing system that is accessible is not broken.
Clarity in the specifications: There should be clear guidelines to make it easy to comprehend for all and not just a technical person. At present, some of the guidelines are ambiguous and may not be easily discernible even to an experienced developer or website development agencies who are not domain experts. For example, guideline5 states: ‘Information structure and relationship is preserved in all presentation styles’. This guideline could be clearer if it specified that tabular information should be specified with table tags, labels should be marked with label tags, Headings should be marked with heading tags. Etc. This reiterates the earlier point that adherence to WCAG 2.0 is best since it provides developers with resources such as Understanding WCAG 2.0 and Techniques for WCAG 2.0 documents. Another example is guideline 19- ‘There is adequate contrast between text and background colour’. However, it is unclear as to what is meant by ‘adequate’. WCAG 2.0 on the other hand, specifies the contrast for each level. IT specifies acceptable colour combinations for background, foreground and text which increase accessibility.
Stress on implementation: A lot of attention should be given to implementing the guidelines. The fact that there has been minimal success in adoption of the guidelines makes out a clear case for a stronger awareness strategy and adoption action plan, with a dedicated team or department in place within NIC which can work towards supporting training and retrofitting efforts with different government departments and agencies around the country. This also calls for a two tier team approach, one at the central level, with contact points set up for each state which are responsible for this implementation, with the time limit for enforcement of these guidelines. For this purpose, partnerships may be sought with private players and organisations serving the disabled and accessibility experts.

We are available to help this endeavour and are happy to provide support whether in the form of clarifications, feedback or any other manner. Our contact details are given at the end of this submission.

[1]. Accessibility of Government Websites in India: A Report (by CIS and Hans Foundation): http://cisindia.org/accessibility/accessibility-of-government-websites-in-india

[2]. Available at http://www.ncert.nic.in/announcements/notices/pdf_files/Nationalpolicyonuniversal.pdf

[3]. Available at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG-EEM/

Click to download the submission file.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/comments-to-gigw