Ancillary benefits to the FOUNDATION
- Will lead the way in its affordable Braille Literacy Program! The program
progresses by integrating the internet into the every pedagogy. A study of
Shakespeare, for instance, might also include a search of commentaries by
authors and by the reading public, as well as, entries in Encyclopediae, and the
like.
- Anything that is encoded in a text file can be read in a refreshable Braille
display! Other non-text materials, such as images of text like Fax messages,
could be converted into text via an optical recognition system (OCR). And
affordable at that!
- The members of the FOUNDATION might decide to take up the challenge of
re-writing and customizing the software, opening up a new set of job
opportunities. And they could even accept software development engagements. They
might even bring the project to different, though, more effective directions.
- The Foundation, in cooperation with communities of the Blind, could branch
out into Braille Literacy Centers. To reduce capital investment, the Centers
might have only one classroom for many subjects and for different class levels.
For example, one user from one level could take up a subject in Literature,
another in Math in another year level, and so on. This is possible because each
user has an independent keyboard/Braille display combination and each user may
access different parts of the PC file-system, at the same time. When networked,
each user will have access to a whole new development and learning environment.
- Users may now access technical papers on the internet, or the intranet, and
conduct research that was heretofore possible only on expensive machines on the
basis of a 1_x_machine‑to‑1_x_VisuallyImpairedUser ratio. With this system, we
have
1_machine-to-5_VisuallyImpairedUsers PLUS 1_SightedUser
A network 10 of these PC's will serve 50 visually impaired and 10 sighted
users. Could one imagine this network extending from developed countries to remote, underdeveloped areas
of the world?
A School or a Talking Book Library could TRAIN EDUCATORS at those
areas to gain a geometric multiplier effect.
