Government launches website for the blind
Government launches website for the blind
JAKARTA (JP): A website for the blind was launched on Monday
in a bid to create an opportunity for the blind to explore and
share knowledge with fellow blind people.
State Minister of Research and Technology Muh. A.S. Hikam,
said the website, jointly developed by non-government group
Yayasan Mitra Netra and the state Agency for the Research and
Application Technology (BPPT), showed remarkable progress in the
country's technological advancement.
"Today, this is a momentous event where we can see that our
technology experts have faced stiffer challenges to sharpen their
sensitivity and develop their skills to contribute their
expertise for the people, including those with visual
disabilities, " Hikam, who chairs BPPT, said.
The website, www.mitranet.or.id, is complete with speech
synthesizer software that enables the blind to operate a computer
and to browse the Internet, as the software, named George,
converts all computer commands and website visual displays into
speech.
George speaks in English and uses English pronunciation when
it reads Indonesian texts.
Contents of the website are, among others things, an online
braille library, mailing lists, news and links of organizations
working with the blind.
Spokeswoman of Mitra Netra Aria Indrawati said the launched
website was part of the foundation's campaign to raise awareness
of the general public about the blind, as their current image is
one of being in a hopeless situation. This site will show how the
blind study and develop their skills in our organizations."
For the blind, the website also provides software that enables
the browser to download the contents and convert the text into
braille.
Nationwide there are only 100 sets of the Braille Converter
Machine, dotmatrix-base printers that automatically print latin
texts into braille. The printers are mostly owned by state-run
special schools for the handicapped (SLB).
Aria agreed that while there are still few blind people who
could get access to use the Internet, she added, "This is just
the beginning, we hope that the cooperation with BPPT will help
us develop cheap and accessible technology for the blind."
On Monday BPPT and Mitra Netra also signed an agreement to
develop an Indonesian-based speech synthesizer and closed circuit
television (CCTV), a hardware facility that would enable people
with impaired vision to enlarge the size of letters in texts.
(emf)