A Volunteer for the Teruko Ikeda ICT Training

Somewhere around August, I was invited by Mr and Mrs Wong to be a volunteer (For me is more than a 'Kaypo chee') for the Teruko Ikeda ICT Training that was held in St. Nicholas Home for the Blind.

From my own understanding, Teruko Ikeda ICT Training is a 1 month ICT workshop for the visually impaired held by the Japan Braille Library. This programme is fully sponsored by the Teruko Ikeda Foundation (I got this info from NCBM Outreach dunno what issue) Another reliable source told me that this programme is sponsored by a rich and kind Japanese lady, so I assume that this kind lady must be the one who setup the Teroku Ikeda Foundation.

Currently the ICT training are divided in to 2 courses, the intermediate course and the advanced course (the advanced course is more on programming, JAWS scripting and XHTML language kind of things). The trainees for this workshop are usually selected from the third world nations like Malaysia, Myanmar, Mongolia, Fiji, Tibet, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia and so on.

Here are glimpse of how the visually impaired use and work with computers.

(All these photos are taken by Ms. Christina Anne Lau)

The first batch (Intermediate Course) of Teruko Ikeda ICT training 2010 staff and participants

The second batch (Advanced Course) of Teruka Ikeda ICT Training 2010 staff and participants.

For a start, all trainees for this course will receive a laptop with window 7 Home premium 64-bit, a JAWS screen reader software and a set of headphones. (The visually impaired rely very much on the voice of the screen reader to read out what is on the screen to them when using the computer, so it is very important for them to use a good headphone or laptops with good quality speakers.)

The first batch. Some of the Intermediate Course participants with their instructor, Mr. David Hathaway from Japan Braille Library.

The second batch. Some of the participants from the Advanced Course with another instructor from Malaysia Mr. Amir Teh.

Some of the participants from the Advanced Course are busy working on their programming assignments. Seen here are Sisi, Fandy, Ashoka and Nara

Two heads and better than one. Aries is helping Tsengel with some programming task.

Besides learning to use Microsoft Window 7, the participants are also shown other OS and machines, such as I-phone, I pad and so on.

David is showing Yew Yi and Gayan the layout of Macintosh OS.

Ariffin and Yew Yi is having a first experience with I-pad

From my own point of view, this ICT training is very good effort in equipping the visually impaired from the under develop and developing countries with ICT knowledge and skills to enable them to gain a better opportunities in career or further their studies.

A Big Thanks and congratulations to the Founder of Teruko Ikeda Foundation and the staff from the Japan Braille Libraary that are involved in this project.