Rehabilitation for The Visually Impaired in Taiwan

Thanks to your support, all the TDTB projects went well from July to September 2017. Major activities in the TDTB during this period are listed as followed:

1. Computer Training Courses:

1) The NVDA screen reader empowers visually impaired people (VIP) computer skill to access internet information. During the period of July and August 2017, there four one-day courses given in Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung, with over 40 attendees. In addition, we held one seminar on the NVDA in August 2017, and discussed with 30 VIPs about how to enhance their NVDA skill.

2) Chinese typing and data searching: In order to search data on the Internet, you have to key in the exact keywords of the information that you’re looking for. And that is why correct typing is critical to the VIPs accessibility to information. By holding competition on Chinese Dictation Typing and Data Searching in July 2017, we motivated 17 VIPs to enhance their computer skills as well as their data acquiring capabilities.

2. The promotion of DAISY books:

Digital Accessible Information System, or DAISY, is a format of digital talking books for people who wish to hear. We prepared 100 DAISY Players for VIP students in elementary and junior high schools. With these DAISY Players, VIP students would have a better chance to reach the outside world. In addition, we held three courses to train 20 VIPs to produce their own DAISY books. As a result of these trainings, the TDTB has produce 100 DAISY books during this period of time.

3. Vocational training:

In the ongoing vocational training starting from March, we equipped about 10 VIPs with vocational skills, such as computer file management, Microsoft Office operation, internet surfing, NVDA, DAISY books, and etc. This vocational training is a nine-month project, and will end in November.

4. Individual training:

From June to August 2017, we provided several VIPs in need with customized training courses. In these courses, we discussed about the operations, applications and conveniences of the NVDA and smart phone. During this period, these courses summed up to 124 hours.

5. Experience sharing:

On July 16^th and September 9^th, we held two seminars, and invited VIP speakers Ms. Zhang and Mr. Hsu to share their life experiences on overcoming visually disabilities. Ms. Zhang is a successful VIP business woman, and Mr. Hsu is now a VIP interior designer.

  (Sep. 2017)

Links:

• Visit the Taiwan Digital Talking Book Association