[Sir Apollo Kaggwa Secondary School Mukono]
[Visually impaired students learning using smartphones]
[Student’s finger using smartphone]
[Student being shown how to swipe on smartphone]
[Student]
[Trainer explaining Blind Assistant app to students]
[Student]
[Smartphone, showing different functions of Blind Assistant app]
[Susan Nakajje, co-founder of Blind Assistant app, with student]
Susan Nakajje (interview): “We first train them on how to use the smartphones, we found that some had not even caught it in their hands, they were so excited having it and being trained on how to operate it. And introducing the Blind Assistant application was something that was welcomed by them, since now they do not need much assistance, they can read in fact for examination time, they do not need to spend 30 minutes outside the examination room for the texts to be transferred to braille, but now, they can read the instructions on their own and then answer, so they enjoy the same benefits like sighted people.”
[Banner, showing digital training for visually impaired students]
[Students arriving]
[Student demonstrating how Blind Assistant app can help them read documents]
[Smartphone to paper, as app reads document]
Ahmad Muwonge (interview): “Reading notes has not been easy, because our friends tend to be too busy, and time is going. By the time you want to read, everything is too much, and this app, the Blind Assistant, has come to solve all those problems, we are able to read on our own and in the time that we want.”
[Visually impaired students using smartphones]
[Student using braille device]
Michael Mambo (interview): “Other learners are given set texts to be able to read, and for them, since they cannot be able to read texts which are in print, the first option will be to get their peers in free time to be able to read for them the same texts as they are brailing the text and they will be able to read that text after some time. But now, with the assistive technologies which has been given, the Blind Assistant, they’re able to scan these texts without having to translate them into braille. So, they will depend on the audio version to read what is in the text and be able to answer the question as required. I know that is going to save time for them, also for the teacher to give assessment work to them.”
[Students being taught how to use Blind Assistant app]
Frank Akankwasa (interview): “This application is a mobile software app, once you install it on a smartphone, Android, it turns a smartphone into a device that can read ordinary printed texts. In addition, it can detect currency it can also be used to identify objects.”
[Event]
[Students at event]
[Certificate]
[Students receiving certificates]
Isabella Wene Paida (interview): “I started with digital literacy, and I learnt how to call using that technology. I also learnt how to write a message and send it, then we went ahead with learning how to use internet, we wrote using the internet, then I also learnt how to use my fingers, double taps and also how to access talk back.”
[Students receiving certificates]
Ahmad Muwonge (interview): “Given the feature of Explorer, I can use it as I’m travelling, it can assist me to read whatever I am passing by. And also, at home, someone might send me to get a particular object, and I don’t know where it is, so I just use the phone and it tells me.”
[Smartphones for students]
[App developer handing over smartphones to school employee]
[Students and teachers posing for photo]
[Students leaving event]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.