Technology to Transform Education for Blind Children

Sustain for Life’s newest strategic advisor Dr Cristian Bernareggi is leading on a project to use computer science and assistive technology to open up new learning opportunities for blind and visually impaired students in Uganda. Through this innovation, the students will be able to learn all subjects taught at school, particularly English.

Sustain for Life will pilot this project at Kisoro Demo School and will provide the school with computers equipped with open source software to enable sight impaired students to use computer programmes and teachers to produce learning material in audio format. Specifically, the open source screen reader NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access) will enable students to access a computer and the open source application Balabolka will enable teachers to produce learning material in audio format. Furthermore, each student will be given an MP3 audio player with many public domain audio books available. Students will be able to listen to study material, audio books and even to listen to the radio to keep informed about news and local initiatives.

Dr Bernareggi will join the Sustain for Life team in Uganda this November and will spend a week at Kisoro Demo School training the children and staff on this life-changing technology. You can learn more about him here.