Keyboard clicks with sound effects

Ranchi's seventh grader Mritunjay Mahto is fast turning to be a geek who lives and breathes computers.

No, he's not downloading games or cracking codes or chatting on Facebook. If he correctly types the word "dog" he's happy. And he doesn't know what a computer looks like, because he can't see.

Blind cricket prodigy Ranthu Munda who left Ranchi's Rajyakrit Netraheen Madhya Vidyalaya for New Delhi in 2006 for better opportunities will be pleased to know that students of his alma mater are now using computers.

Mritunjay and 19 others are learning to type on computers enabled with audio software Supernova Screen Reading at the Harmu cradle for the blind. Eleven such computers ' the state had asked the Centre for the special audio enabled machines ' had arrived in September at this cradle.

Now, computer literacy courses are being run jointly by the state disability commission and information technology department, Government of India, with technical support from New Delhi-based National Association of Blind ERNET ICT Labs, which developed the audio software. Three-hour classes are taken six days a week. The course duration is of two years.

Mritunjay didn't even believe that such a machine exists. "I kept touching it," recalled the boy, beaming at the naivete of his ignorance. Now, sitting ramrod straight, he typed with confidence.

If he misspells a word, the friendly computer tells him so through a system called the IVR. "I told my students that if you hear a sound similar to a 'plop' made when one throws a stone into water, you've not typed correctly," said mentor Manish Tiwary.

The screen displays the time limit and the number of words typed by students. For example, Mritunjay's classmate Avinash Kumar typed 81 words correctly out of a total of 99 in 235 seconds.

But not everyone had to be as brainy as Avinash. Some, like Class VI student Babu Marandi, were simply happy to operate upon the computer.

"I can type rose, fruit, even Canada," he said proudly.

In the second and vital phase of learning ' introduction is over ' which involves keyboard operation, the students are also being told to be serious as this skill could turn out to be a source of living in future.

"Economic self-sufficiency is of paramount concern if someone is disabled," school principal Laxman Choudhary said.

State disability commissioner Satish Chandra said this was the state's first blind school with a computer course. "We want our students to be employed in banks and other firms like everyone else," Chandra said.

Which other livelihood skills can the visually challenged be equipped with?

Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com