Visually impaired at birth, Panta had become able to stay connected with his family and friends and work through a computer from home after participating in a basic computer training programme conducted three months ago at the initiation of District Development Committee at Bhuwaneshwari Higher Secondary School in Suda. A total of 14 visually impaired individuals, including 13 from the district and one from Dadeldhura, had participated in the programme conducted since mid-June.

“We did not know that even we could use computers with ease,” said Panta, a third year student studying a Bachelors in Education (B Ed) at Siddhanath Multiple Campus (SMC).

One Damari Bhatta of Dadeldhura has already managed to secure a job after participating in the training programme while the remaining are working on improving their computer skills.

Bhatta has secured a job as a social facilitator at the Disabled Welfare Service Association in the district.

The visually impaired have been using the computers with the help of Job Access with Speech (JAWS) software.

“The software tells us which buttons to hit and provides us with simple directions for using various computer programmes,” said Panta. “It acts like a mouse for us.”

Likewise, Bhawendra Singh of Gobriya of Bhimdutta municipality-15,  who was also visually impaired at birth, said that the training enabled them to connect with family and friends through social networking sites and has helped them become more confident. Pursuing his bachelor degree at SMC, Singh had completed his SLC from Laboratory School in Kathmandu.

“Nowadays, we mostly talk about computers and share our experiences in order to help each other learn more about the use of computers whenever we meet in person,” Singh said.

At the initiative of Panta, Rotary and Rotract Pashupati, an NGO, had provided six computers to the association when the visually impaired cricket team from the far-west had arrived in Kathmandu last year.

“The training has helped the visually impaired to learn and remain informed about new developments from home,” said Jiwan Bhatta, regional coordinator of the National Association of the Physically Disabled in far-west.

Meanwhile, Panta said that they were trying to raise funds to setup a centre where the visually impaired individuals could learn and get to use the computers under one roof.

“We have been coordinating with various organisations to setup such a centre,” Panta added.