Broadening the Horizon of the Blind in Catholic Schools

Ireneaus Chia Chongwain

As educational institutions remodel their training schemes to better respond to the challenges posed by the introduction of the New Information and Communication Technologies (NICT) in different schools, authorities of Catholic Secondary Education are working tirelessly to keep up with the pace of change.

While training seminars to reinforce the  NICT capacities of its personnel are presently underway, attempts are also being made to ensure that most students who attend catholic secondary schools, even the blind, should have access NICT resources, as is the case in Collège de la Retraite in Yaounde.
It is already one year that that the Adapted Computer Centre For Visually Impaired Persons was inaugurated at Collège de la Retraite in Yaounde. At the moment, ten visually impaired persons, all students of the college, are receiving lessons at the centre in computer sciences, while another student from the Republic of Chad is also being drilled as a trainer of trainers.
While this centre is open only to visually impaired students, Collège de la Retraite also has one of the best multi-media centres in the Central African sub-region, which enables other students who are not visually handicapped, to master and keep abreast with the ever evolving domain of the information super highway, as the Catholic Church's approach to access to the New Information and Communication  Technologies, for now, is essentially inclusive.
According to the Director of the centre, Kengne Kiomo Daniel, the prowess of the centre cannot be determined by its modest nature. With just three computers, a Braille printer and other adapted accessories, Kengne Daniel says marvels are being accomplished at the centre by the blind.
The centre is the joint initiative of the Ministry of Social Affairs, the National Association of the Blind in Cameroon, the Association Valentine Haùy For the Welfare of the Blind in Paris, France and college de le Retraite. The Adapted Computer Centre for Visually-Impaired Persons offers courses in three areas- the mastery of the basics or fundamentals in Computer Sciences. This course lays emphasis on understanding general and adapted information in Computer Sciences.
The second course enables students to master the basic software, with special focus on Windows 98, 2000 and above, that are adapted to the Join Access With Speech (JAWS) program which is the mainstay of computer lessons designed for the blind. The third course enables the visually impaired to use the internet, thus permitting them to reach out and feel the pulse of the world by using specific navigation skills.
Training at the centre is personalised as each student progresses at his or her pace and according to his or her aptitude. The courses have been designed to address purely academic and professional concerns.
Once the full range of the program has been covered, Kengne Daniel explains, the visually impaired can do most of the things that visually alright trained computer users are capable of doing.
At the moment the centre offers limited courses to other blind persons who are not students of Collège de la Retraite and the most interesting part, perhaps, is that the training is offered free. Although the pilot phase is limited to Collège de la Retraite, there are plans to extend the scheme to all the ten provinces in the medium and long terms, to enable the visually impaired who want to improve their computer skills to do so.
The promoters of the centre have expressed the desire to see the centre assist the visually impaired to find definitive and stable jobs and equally ensure an active lifestyle for its graduates. But well beyond this desire, Kengne Daniel says that, "if the centre can only enable most blind people to type, treat and send letters to their interlocutors in all autonomy and intimacy, that would have been a great step forward."
Activities taking place at the centre fall in line with the theme of this year's International Day of the Visually Impaired Persons which is, access of persons in visually impaired conditions to New Information and Communication Technologies.