In the slums of Kibera, an area of Nairobi, Kenya, it is hard enough getting a job if you live here and are able-bodied. If not like Joseph, who is visually-impaired, you live on the streets looking for handouts. But Joseph is doing well, selling wool, making necklaces and selling lamp shades.
But in Kenya, and on most of the African continent, making a living is unlikely as most visually-impaired people are shunned and unlikely to find any help. After shipping more than 120,000 refurbished PCs to the developing world, Computer Aid now wants everyone to use them and therefore developers are creating and testing software aids to help Joseph and many like him. While Dan reported on a free solution several weeks ago, it assumes that users have a basic understanding of powering up and signing onto a computer. Many citizens of the developing world do not fall into this category. Another example of this technology assisting the visually impaired is a student named Loice, who is completely blind and now can touch type faster than most. The reason? She can hear what she is typing thanks to a USB dongle and a software program from Dolphin.
Using a dongle allows Loice to carry the software and use it on any Windows PC. “It makes me proud and it makes me feel independent and also competent. I’m able to compete with other people,” she says. This and other programs such as ZoomText ensures that computers can be used by all but at a cost. The costs to adapt a computer to accept the dongle is relatively low. The main cost is the software itself at $200 is prohibiting many people from obtaining it. Tony Roberts, Computer Aid’s founder, wants to make it more open sourced so that the best software is created and then available for free (or very low cost). But since it is so important to get well-written software on the market, some feel that funding would ensure that developers could create the best software and then make it available for all charities and causes to use and improve. Spurred on by China’s and India’s success in the digital world, and with many nations educating their workforces with stronger computer skills, Computer Aid must compete on a global scale. What concerns Computer Aid is that everyone be given the chance to move with the times also.