Centre for Internet and Society

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 NVDA with E-Speak and BookShare Online Library

nirmita — 2016-04-02T05:54:55Z

With the objective to sensitize and impart the skillset in handling NVDA – the Screen Reader and the usage of BookShare Online Library for the print disabled to the Special Educators, Karna Vidya Technology Centre in collaboration with Computer and Internet Society conducted a one-day Workshop on NVDA with E-Speak and BookShare Online Library on 27 02 2016 (Saturday) at Karna Vidya Technology Centre. Special Educators from Chennai, Kanchipuram and Thiruvallur totaling 48 have participated actively and got benefited from the Workshop.

Sessions on introduction to and installation of NVDA, Tour of different Menus and Cursors, Learning Tamil Keyboard Layout and introduction to BookShare Library were held with practical exercises. All the Special Educators were given participation certificates along with handouts on NVDA, Tamil Keyboard and BookShare in a folder. Many Special Educators expressed their satisfaction and appealed for a full-fledged workshop for 3-4 days to have an in-depth understanding of NVDA and BookShare Library.

Ms. Divyashree, Deputy Collector trainee, Thiruvallur and other guests graced the function by their precious presence.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-nvda-with-e-speak-and-bookshare-online-library

Report on Kannada eSpeak Training with NVDA

nirmita — 2015-07-22T02:14:39Z

NVDA team conducted a two day training programme at Mitra Jyothi in Bangalore (June 8 and 9, 2015). Forty-three delegates attended the training programme.

This workshop was successful in training 43 members in reading and typing in Kannada . It was a “Dream Come True “ feeling for many of them who were waiting to express their thoughts in the regional language. They are now happy as they can continue to write poems , stories etc in their regional language without any external help to type or read.

For the job seekers it is an added advantage as in many government jobs they expect them to make reports and type documents in the official language and visually impaired are now equipped with those skills. It is very important for promotional examinations at various levels during the career. It was indeed a very useful workshop for the visually impaired students and professionals in Karnataka. This training also included some telugu and hindi speaking students who were trained to read and write in their regional language.

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

Report on eSpeak with NVDA Screen Reader and Assistive Technology for Visually Challenged

nirmita — 2016-04-02T06:33:55Z

The Centre for Internet & Society, Bangalore and National Association for the Blind, New Delhi in collaboration with Centre for Differently Abled Persons, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli organized a workshop on eSpeak with NVDA Screen Reader and Assistive Technology for Visually Challenged at Centre for Differently Abled Persons, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli on January 21, 2016.

The eSpeak with NVDA Screen Reader and Assistive Technology workshop planned for 1day (21st January 2016) for those stakeholders in Colleges and Volunteers working with visually challenged students was inaugurated in the morning by Mr. S. Shankar Subbiah, Assistive Technology Consultant and representative of Centre for Internet & Society, Bangalore, and National Association for Blind, New Delhi, the sponsors for workshop. He gave a talk on the purpose of the Workshop and need for use of Assistive Technology 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 participants for their interests on empowerment of visually challenged and their earnest efforts to training them.

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 during the workshop. The participant trainees were from Tiruchirappalli district and nearby districts like Karur, Pudukottai and Thanjavur of Tamilnadu state.

The workshop began with Resource persons, Dr. Prabhavathy and Mr. S. Shankar Subbiah gave an introduction on eSpeak with NVDA and various other Assistive Technology available for visually challenged in education as well as future employment opportunities. Emphasis was laid upon how colleges and university could source them, setup resource centres for visually challenged with access to accessible format of information.

In the afternoon, Mr. K. Navarasan, Visually challenged Assistive Technology Expert gave a live demonstration on eSpeak with NVDA screen reader working on various Data processing and other application tasks. Both, English and Tamil with eSpeak TTS was demonstrated. Also, explained about DAISY format and Bookshare, Online library membership and how it helped visually challenged. He narrated his personal experience as a Post Graduate in English how he was benefitted. And, demonstrated, how a visually challenged person who could login to Bookshare, download books and read through DD Reader+.

The one day workshop had the Valedictory function in the evening presided by Prof. V.M. Muthukumar, Hon. Vice Chancellor, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli who delivered the valedictory address and got the feedback from the participants on whether the workshop was useful and added that they should encourage the students in their college and known to them for using technology. 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.


Picture above shows distribution of certificates at the event.

Feedback

Mrs. Ra, Vijaya Priya, Assistant Professor, Government Law College, Trichy gave the feedback, how the training was helpful and would be useful setting up a center in their college, as there are many visually challenged students now taking law as profession and also was happy to have their own students attending the workshop to be motivated by Mr. Navarasan, as he could demonstrate to them all the possibilities of eSpeak with NVDA and also Bookshare.

Dr. V. Vethavalli, Assistant Professor, Coordinator for Visually Challenged, Assistant Professor, Bharathidasan University Constituent College, Orathanadu felt the workshop was much useful personally to know all the assistive technology available for visually challenged and she would encourage the college for the intake of visually challenged in their college knowing all such technology is available for Tamil and English typing. She also appreciated Mr. Navarasan for his participation in the workshop and do a live demonstration on online library access which encouraged others.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-espeak-with-nvda-screen-reader-and-assistive-technology-for-visually-challenged

Report on eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA Training Workshop in Tirunelveli

nirmita — 2015-07-12T07:50:27Z

The training workshop by the NVDA team was held at Anne Jane Askwith Higher Secondary School for the Visually Impaired, Palayamkottai, Tirunelveli from June 3 - 7, 2015. Sixteen delegates attended the workshop.

Inauguration

The eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA Training workshop planned for 5 days (3^rd June 2015 to 7^th June 2015) extensively for visually challenged college students and teachers was inaugurated on 3^rd June 2015 morning by Mr. V. Jayakumar. District Project Officer for Rural Women Development, Tirunelveli. Mr. J Kingston James Paul, Principal of the School gave the Welcome Address. 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 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. Mr. Periadurai, the Co-ordinator of the Workshop gave the Vote of Thanks and emphasized on using NVDA in Government given Cost Free Laptops as it is preloaded and supports Tamil language too. He thanked the sponsors as this is first of its kind organized in this region for the visually challenged students as hands on training.

The Training Hall in the School served as the venue for training. In order to facilitate the participants with more concentrated and time efforts, High Tea with Snacks and Lunch were also served for the Training days at the Venue. The Girl students numbering 10 who came from neighboring Districts were given free accommodation in the School. Morning breakfast and Evening Dinner was provided by the Organizers. There were volunteers from Smile Charitable Trust, Tirunelveli who gave Laptops to those students did not have and also assisted the Trainees, who were new to computer. The participant trainees numbering to 16 were from Tirunelveli district and nearby districts like Kanyakumari, Tuticorin, Virudhunagar and Ramanathapuram of Tamilnadu state.

Workshop Schedule

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

Day 1: June 3, 2015

Forenoon

The whole group of Trainees had few who were new to computers, few with knowledge on operating until the level of Notepad and few in an advanced level working on MS Word and Internet.
A general overview on Operating System, Applications available in Windows, Screen readers and other Assistive Technology like OCR, Scan and Read applications available for Visually Challenged were dealt with.
NVDA was loaded in Laptops who did not have them installed previously and Tamil language keyboard settings was added.

Afternoon

The group was divided in to three groups. First without prior knowledge on computers were given training on Keyboard mapping and basic computer operation commands through NVDA.
The second group was given practices on NVDA shortcuts, Windows operations and an introduction to Word.
The third group was given exercises to work efficiently on using MS Word through Shortcuts and Tamil computing introduction through passages to read.

Day 2: June 4, 2015

Forenoon

Tamil keyboard layout mapping of Microsoft Windows for default Unicode Tamil Font typing were introduced to all the trainees by the Resource person and it was decided to use Notepad for uniform training.
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 for typing and practicing by themselves as few of them wanted more time. Combinations with two letter, three letter, four letter word units given as dictation to those who were bit advanced in their typing skills.
A play and learn session was organized to say the keystrokes for vowels and consonants at the end for memorizing.

Day 3: June 5, 2015

Forenoon

The Trainees were trained by giving large sets of four, 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, were introduced with short cuts for navigation within the text, spell check, cut, copy, paste commands. Almost everyone were in the same page at this point of time, regarding Tamil typing skills. And, now they were allowed to use Notepad or MS Word, whichever is comfortable for them.

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.
The settings of NVDA to change Voice, rate and other settings were given for practice to do themselves as a revision.

Day 4: June 6, 2015

Forenoon

The trainees were introduced to toggle language between English and Tamil for bilingual content typing and practice.
Next training 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.
The Trainees were given a home work to listen a Tamil content, type and save it as a separate file.

Afternoon

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.
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.

Day 5: June 7, 2015

Forenoon

The trainees were given information on Higher Education options available as well as career opportunities ahead in Government and Private Sector. The trainees were explained of various scholarship and assistive devices schemes as they had a request have a session on this.
This was followed up with a game based assessment for their Computer skills and Tamil computing knowledge imparted through training. It was a two hour session, with initial 45 minutes being spent as a chain to say the right keystrokes for letters, keystrokes for different words and make a sentence using the keystrokes for Tamil alone. The next 45 minutes concentrated on their bilingual word processing skills, shortcuts, file operations, formatting through interactive questions, and group quiz. These the students felt like a revision and practiced them on their Laptops too.

The Valedictory Function

After the Lunch, The eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA Training workshop conducted for 5 days (3^rd June 2015 to 7^th June 2015) had a great Valedictory function presided by Mr. T. Manoharan, District Officer for Welfare of Differently Abled, Tirunelveli. The District Officer, also felicitated the gathering and distributed the Certificates to the participants. Few students demonstrated their Tamil computing skills to the District Officer by operating on Laptop. He was happy to note that and informed the Trainees he would discuss with the higher authorities to organize more such Workshops during the holidays or after Laptop being distributed. He thanked the organizers for choosing Tirunelveli and invited the local TV media reporter immediately to make a record of it. This would be shared in his sensitization programme for Government officials to create awareness on potential capabilities of the Visually Impaired if training opportunities were given particularly in computers. The certificates were distributed to the Trainees thereafter. The Principal of the School, Mr. Kingston also gave a felicitation talk on how the training have to be further continued through practice. He thanked the sponsors and organizers for a timely measure to use the Summer holidays much useful for the Trainees by learning Tamil computing. Vote of thanks to CIS, NAB and the organizers was given by Mr. Periadurai, the Co-ordinator. The training that one such programme to be conducted in Tirunelveli as per the District Officer felt much useful and requested to extend in coming Holidays ended up with the National Anthem.

Previously, the Tamil equivalent ‘Dinamani’ of The New Indian Express covered with a one fourth page content of the Training programme interacting with the students and the coordinator. A scanned copy of this news is attached herewith.

Feedback

Ms. Gnanam, a Tamil Teacher felt it would be now easy to type her lesson plans in Tamil and she could read more e-text novels available in Tamil. Also, do emails in Tamil. She thanked the Organizers for a good stay in their old school and a useful training with her friends coming together.

The mother of Ms. Anna Sundari, felt that it was a great opportunity for all the trainees as they were able to spend their time much useful. And, as mother is happy to see her Girl typing in Tamil all their names. She thanked the organizers for the workshop in a nearby district and wanted one such run regularly in the school. This would help the students in their education, reduce dependency on scribes, readers and work independently.

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

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 — 2015-07-21T14:46:34Z

The NVDA team held a five days training (June 3 - 7, 2015) at Anne Jane Askwith Higher Secondary School for the Visually Impaired, Palayamkottai, Tirunelveli.

Inauguration

The eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA Training workshop planned for 5 days extensively for visually challenged college students and teachers was inaugurated on 3rd June 2015 morning by Mr. V. Jayakumar. District Project Officer for Rural Women Development, Tirunelveli. Mr. J Kingston James Paul, Principal of the School gave the Welcome Address. 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 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. Mr. Periadurai, the Co-ordinator of the Workshop gave the Vote of Thanks and emphasized on using NVDA in Government given Cost Free Laptops as it is preloaded and supports Tamil language too. He thanked the sponsors as this is first of its kind organized in this region for the visually challenged students as hands on training.

Workshop Schedule

Day 1 - June 3

Forenoon

The whole group of Trainees had few who were new to computers, few with knowledge on operating until the level of Notepad and few in an advanced level working on MS Word and Internet.
A general overview on Operating System, Applications available in Windows, Screen readers and other Assistive Technology like OCR, Scan and Read applications available for Visually Challenged were dealt with.
NVDA was loaded in Laptops who did not have them installed previously and Tamil language keyboard settings was added.

Afternoon

The group was divided in to three groups. First without prior knowledge on computers were given training on Keyboard mapping and basic computer operation commands through NVDA.
The second group was given practices on NVDA shortcuts, Windows operations and an introduction to Word.
The third group was given exercises to work efficiently on using MS Word through Shortcuts and Tamil computing introduction through passages to read.

Day 2 - June 4

Forenoon

Tamil keyboard layout mapping of Microsoft Windows for default Unicode Tamil Font typing were introduced to all the trainees by the Resource person and it was decided to use Notepad for uniform training.
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 for typing and practicing by themselves as few of them wanted more time. Combinations with two letter, three letter, four letter word units given as dictation to those who were bit advanced in their typing skills.
A play and learn session was organized to say the keystrokes for vowels and consonants at the end for memorizing.

Day 3 - June 5

Forenoon

The Trainees were trained by giving large sets of four, 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, were introduced with short cuts for navigation within the text, spell check, cut, copy, paste commands. Almost everyone were in the same page at this point of time, regarding Tamil typing skills. And, now they were allowed to use Notepad or MS Word, whichever is comfortable for them.

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.
The settings of NVDA to change Voice, rate and other settings were given for practice to do themselves as a revision.

Day 4 - June 6

Forenoon

The trainees were introduced to toggle language between English and Tamil for bilingual content typing and practice.
Next training 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.
The Trainees were given a home work to listen a Tamil content, type and save it as a separate file.

Afternoon

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.
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.

Day 5 - June 7

Forenoon

The trainees were given information on Higher Education options available as well as career opportunities ahead in Government and Private Sector. The trainees were explained of various scholarship and assistive devices schemes as they had a request have a session on this.
This was followed up with a game based assessment for their Computer skills and Tamil computing knowledge imparted through training. It was a two hour session, with initial 45 minutes being spent as a chain to say the right keystrokes for letters, keystrokes for different words and make a sentence using the keystrokes for Tamil alone. The next 45 minutes concentrated on their bilingual word processing skills, shortcuts, file operations, formatting through interactive questions, and group quiz. These the students felt like a revision and practiced them on their Laptops too.

The Valedictory Function

After the Lunch, The eSpeak Tamil Computing with NVDA Training workshop conducted for 5 days (3rd June 2015 to 7th June 2015) had a great Valedictory function presided by Mr. T. Manoharan, District Officer for Welfare of Differently Abled, Tirunelveli. The District Officer, also felicitated the gathering and distributed the Certificates to the participants. Few students demonstrated their Tamil computing skills to the District Officer by operating on Laptop. He was happy to note that and informed the Trainees he would discuss with the higher authorities to organize more such Workshops during the holidays or after Laptop being distributed. He thanked the organizers for choosing Tirunelveli and invited the local TV media reporter immediately to make a record of it. This would be shared in his sensitization programme for Government officials to create awareness on potential capabilities of the Visually Impaired if training opportunities were given particularly in computers. The certificates were distributed to the Trainees thereafter. The Principal of the School, Mr. Kingston also gave a felicitation talk on how the training have to be further continued through practice. He thanked the sponsors and organizers for a timely measure to use the Summer holidays much useful for the Trainees by learning Tamil computing. Vote of thanks to CIS, NAB and the organizers was given by Mr. Periadurai, the Co-ordinator. The training that one such programme to be conducted in Tirunelveli as per the District Officer felt much useful and requested to extend in coming Holidays ended up with the National Anthem.

Feedback

Ms. Keerthika, a graduate who exhibited her typing talent to the Officer was happy and felt that this day was a markable in Life for her. The five days training introduced her to many shortcuts not known to her and also gave her more confidence now for using computers in her higher studies and career.

The mother of Ms. Anna Sundari, felt that it was a great opportunity for all the trainees as they were able to spend their time much useful. And, as mother is happy to see her Girl typing in Tamil all their names. She thanked the organizers for the workshop in a nearby district and wanted one such run regularly in the school. This would help the students in their education, reduce dependency on scribes, readers and work independently.

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

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 eSpeak Marathi Training at MJ College, Jalgaon

nirmita — 2015-07-22T01:22:40Z

The Centre for Internet & Society conducted a workshop for reading and writing using eSpeak with NVDA at Dreamy Eyes Resource Centre in Jalgaon on June 23 and 24, 2015.


Participants seen practicing on their computers during the workshop

The two days event comprised of the following trainings:

Introduction to NVDA.
Advantages of NVDA.
Configuration of NVDA.
Installation of Espeak for Indian Languages [Developer Version 1.31]
Configuration of Espeak synthesiser.
Configuration of Language options in Control Pannel.
Introduction to Marathi Keyboard.
Typing short words and sentences.
Reading and Comprehension in Marathi.
Knowledge about Assistive devices.

Most of the participants were college going students, who were very excited to start reading and writing in Marathi. They expressed deep gratitude for empowering them in their mother tongue.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-espeak-marathi-training-at-mj-college

Report on 30 Days Summer Course on Basic Computer Competencies and Language Proficiency

nirmita — 2015-07-12T13:55:05Z

The month long summer course was held at Karna Vidya Technology Centre, Thiru-Vi-Ka, Industrial Estate, Chennai and was attended by 20 delegates.

With the support of Centre for Internet Society (CIS), Karna Vidya Technology Centre (KVTC) has conducted 30 days Summer Course on Basic Computer Competencies and Language Proficiency to introduce, strengthen and enhance the students on Computer Operations and language proficiency.

Inauguration

On the first of May 2015, the Summer course was inaugurated by Mrs. Sumathi, a Tamil poet cum volunteer. The function started off with a melodious invocation by KVTC trainee. The manager, KVTC, welcomed the invitees and participants. The course trainers outsketched the details of the course. It was followed by the chief guest’s address. The guest emphasized on the the need for professionalism and commitment. She inaugurated the course and conveyed her best wishes to all the trainees. With the vote of Thanks by one of the trainers from KVTC, the function came to an end.

Sessions:
The sessions are designed as:
02 00 pm – 04 00 pm Computers
04 10 pm – 06 00 pm English communication Skills.
Between 04 00 pm – 04 10 pm Tea Break

Session on Computers with NVDA

The trainees are given a thorough understanding of NVDA, it’s installation process, commands, Typing Speed and Accuracy, Desktop orientation, Menu Bars, Dialogue boxes, editing and alignment in MS. Word. They were also given training on Tamil Typing using NVDA. Online Bookshare Library was also introduced to them and some have got registered in the Library.

English Language proficiency :

Students had a valuable training on English Communication Skills. They were taught basic grammar and given various practical exercises on Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. Home assignments are also given and assessed.

Evaluation: The students were assessed at regular intervals and guided for their betterment. Special focus was given to slow learners.

Benefits:
This Summer Course was very benefitial, Since it focused and enabled three different categories of students namely:
Students pursuing Secondary (10th Std),
Higher Secondary (12th Std) and
Higher education (Graduates)
All the 20 students learnt the basics of NVDA and English only from KVTC. At the end of the course, they felt happy, as they were able to breathe the air of independent learning using screen readers. They have assured us that they would minimize their visit to reading centres and make use of E texts, Audio books and Online Bookshare Library for their studies. The trainees were given a folder comprising:

Certificate
A Book on English communications both in print and audio CD.

Valedictory Function

The valedictory function was graced by Mr. Pankesh and Ms. Abhirami from Paypal. We also had a special invitee Mr. Ramakrishnan Accessibility Consultant, IBM, Bangalore. The function began with the invocation and the manager, KVTC, welcomed the gathering. Then, Mr. Ramakrishnan highlighted on the various avenues available for the visually impaired candidates. The guests congratulated every trainee and wished them the best for their future endeavours. They also handed over the Study Kit for every trainee. The function ended with National anthem.

Thanks to Supporters

Karna Vidya Technology Centre would like to submit it’s sincere gratitude to all it’s supporters for being with all the endeavours of the centre at all stages. Especially, The Summer Course on Basic Computer Competencies and Language Proficiency, conducted from 1st May 2015 to 31st May 2015 had seen best outcome from the student participants. The support and guidance of DR. Homiyar Ji, CEO, NAB Delhi, The cooperation of centre for Internet Society, Bangalore - our funding partner for this course and our parent club Rotary club of Madras Coromandel enabled us to conduct the course smoothly and effectively.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-30-days-summer-course-on-basic-computer-competencies-and-language-proficiency

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 Hindi

nirmita — 2015-04-10T02:33:56Z

The highlight of the session was that the students on completion of the 15 days training, were able to write passages in Hindi. All the participants were able to do basic computing, such as opening files, saving them in different locations, surfing the Internet, etc.

The university officials appreciated the work of the students as they showed a resolve to learn Hindi typing. This would enable them to write their own examination papers using eSpeak Hindi. This is a historic step, as till now the students had to depend upon their scribes to write their exams.

Some documents of the final day's work of the students are listed below:

Story

एक जंगल में एक खरगोश और एक कछूआ रहता था। वे दोनो अच्छे दोस्त थे। पह खरगोस बहुत घमंडी था। वह हमेसा कछूए को यह कहता रहता था कि तुम तो बहुत धीरे चलते हो और मै तो बहुत तेज चलता हूं। और कछूए को निचा दिखाने के लिए खरगोश ने कहा कि चलो हम रेस लगाते हैं।और एक दिन सुबह वे दोनो रेस के लिए एक पेड़ के निचे मिलते हैं।और रेस सुरु करते हैं।जैसा की हम सभी जानते हैं कि खरगोस बहुत तेज दौड़ता है तो वह तेजी से दौड़ के आगे निकल जाता है और कछूआ पिछे रह जाता है।जब खरगोश पिछे देखता है तो ऊसे बहूत दूर तक कछूआ दिखाई नही देता है।तो खरगोश सोचता है कि कुछ देर तक आराम कर लेता हूं।तो खरगोस एक पेड़ के निचे आराम के लिए बैठ जाता है।और उसे नींद आ जाती है और वो सो जाता है। और कछूआ धीरे धीरे चल कर खरगोस से आगे निकल जाता है और धीरे घीरे कर के अपने लक्ष्य तक पहूंच जाता है।और खरगोस सोता रह जाता है।और जब उसकी नींद खुलती है तो खरगोस देखता है कि कछूआ रेस के आखरी लक्ष्य तक पहूंच चुका है।और इस तरह कछूआ धीरे चल कर भी रेस जीत जाता है और खरगोस तेज चल कर भी हार जाता है।

सीख-नीरंतर प्रयास करने वाले को सफलता जरूर मिलती है।

अतुलित भलधामम्, हेम शैला भजेहम, दनुज वन किसानम ज्ञान नमामि द्रिगड़्यम वह शक्ति हमे दो दयानिधे, कर्तव्य मार्ग पर डट जावेँ पर सेवा, पर उपकार मेँ हम, जग जिवन सफल बन जावेँ हम दीन दुखी निवलोँ विकलो के सेवक बन सँताप हरेँ जो हैँ अटके भूले बटके, उनको तारेँ खुद तर जावेँ थल दँभ द्वश पाखड झूठ अन्याय से निश दिन दूर रहे जीवन हो शुद्ध, सरल अपना, निश प्रेम शुधारल बरसावेँ निज आन मान मर्यादा का प्रभु, ध्यान रहे अभिमान रहे

जिस देश धरा पर जन्म लिया, बलिदान उसी पर हो जावे सकल गुढ़ा निदानम, वानराढ़ाम धीषम रघुपति प्रिय भक्तम वातजातम नमामी

The Training in Brief (As Provided by the Trainer)

Day 1: Keyboard orientation and introduction to computers
Day 2: Typing
Day 3: Hindi Typing
Day 4: Introduction to Desktop
Day 5: Introduction to Dialogue Boxes and Menus
Day 6: Saving Documents and Creating Folders
Day 7: Content Editing
Day 8: Opening and Closing Programs
Day 9: Concepts of Internet
Day 10: Google Search, Gmail Account, Book Share and Websites
Day 11: Tying Paras in Hindi
Day 12: More Tying Exercises
Day 13 - 15: Revision Exercises

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

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 15 days Training in Basic Computing at RNKS

nirmita — 2015-07-21T15:16:55Z

The NVDA team organized a 15 days training in basic computing at Rajasthan Natrahin Kalyan Sansthan (RNKS) in Jaipur. The training programme held from June 1 - 15, 2015 was attended by 12 delegates. Mrityunjay Kumar was the trainer. The basic training for computers was targeted for school going children of RNKS.

The aim was to enable them to at least start using a computer as a Tool for Reading and Writing in Hindi. Along with knowledge of Basic computer Operations, the participants were also taught about the use of Bookshare Online Library, Use of Android and other Assistive Devices.

Report from Master Trainer: Mritunjay Kumar

Day 1: We have learnt Keyboard orientation and Introduction to computer, like what is a computer, where do you use a computer and advantages of computer.
Day 2: We have learnt Typing and introduction of screen reader, what screen reader is and how many types of screen reader. Also discussed about input and output devices.
Day 3: We have played small game about typing, how do we use fingers do typing? Also explained desktop and taskbar concept.
Day 4: We have learnt about software and types of software, There are three types of software, also explained menu, what is menu? What types of menu?
Day 5: We have learnt Opening closing and saving the document, editing concept have also been discussed.
Day 6: We have learnt how to cutting, copying and pasting the text in documents. Also we discussed Hindi alphabet.
Day 8: We have done Hindi typing and we have written small story in Hindi language.
Day 9: We have learnt File folder management and explain concept of dialog box, what is dialog box, types of dialog box.
Day 10: We learnt find and replace feature using Microsoft word document. Also explained how to create table in Microsoft Word.
Day 11: We have learnt spelling tool.
Day 12: We have discussed brief history of internet, and how will be do Google search. Also we learnt how to open website using NVDA
Day 13: We discussed about book share website, then we have learnt how to open book share website, and how to download books. Also we explain about android.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/report-on-15-days-training-in-basic-computing-at-rnks