Dashrath Talveja, 68-year-old resident of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh is visually impaired by birth. He discontinued his studies after class 11th and joined his family business of furniture. On a recent visit to Ahmedabad for his grandson’s admission into medical college, Dashrath got a chance to visit Blind People’s Association (BPA). He had some functional concerns he faced on a daily basis in his business operation for which he was redirected to the Eyeway Helpdesk housed at BPA. Dashrath shared his challenges with the Helpdesk counselor.
Since he helped with the business accounting, he found it difficult to read small font in documents like bills and visiting cards. He currently uses a magnifying glass and a torch to carry out this task. The Eyeway counsellor comprehended the situation and apprised him of various computer software, devices and android applications that could prove useful. The counsellor also demonstrated the use of NVDA screen reader on the computer and Talkback application on an android mobile phone. Dashrath was also informed about the various OCR (Optical Character Recognition) applications such as Google Lens, Smart Lens, Eye-D Pro etc. that convert handwritten, typed or printed texts into machine-encoded texts, making it accessible and easier to read.
Excited to hear about assistive technology solutions, Dashrath was curious to know more. He expressed an interest to enrol in a computer training programme. The counselor gave him the options of joining a week’s training at BPA itself or exploring training programmes in his hometown. Eyeway will continue to follow up with Dashrath until we identify a suitable computer training centre for him in Madhya Pradesh.