Prayatna Nepal is the self-help organization working for the living of women and girls with visually impairments. The organization is established by the composition of both women with and without visually impairments. Among the seven board members, five of them (71%) are visual impairments, and the organization is led by the totally blind woman as the Chairperson. This idea of inclusion in the organizational structure is to ensure equal efforts from every individual with better understanding in improving social, cultural, economic and political aspects of lives of women with disabilities.
The first day of the event was started by Ms. Sarita Lamichhane (chairperson of Prayatna Nepal), who welcomed all the participants and the objectives of the training and asked all the participants and organizing members to introduce themselves before getting into the session. After the introduction round, the session was started by Mr. Khom Raj Sharma who initially took the pre-test, where Ms. Ritu Pant supported the participants in noting down and answering the questions in braille. After the pre-test, Mr. Khom presented about digital rights and its importance. He then informed the participants on the domains of assistive technology. After the participants could grasp concept of assistive technology, they were informed further about how these can be beneficial/supportive for blind and visually impaired people. After this session, the participants were engaged in hands on activities where they learned about basic accessibility settings and talk back gestures in their smart phones.
The second day started with Mr. Khom Raj explaining on different assistive software used for reading purposes like: Insta Reader, Seeing AI and Braille Scanner, and guided all the participants to download the applications in their smart phones and navigate it. Further to this, Mr. Khom informed the participants about two applications called Easy Reader and Book Share to access libraries and books for study purposes. He then encouraged the participants to download these applications and practice it independently. After this, Mr. Khom also shared about the application called Be My Eyes, which is a popular assistive application intended to provide support to blind and visually impaired people. He also explained further about Be My AI and its technical features. After that, the participants were further taught and guided to download and use the application. During the practical sessions, the assistant facilitator, Ms. Sabita along with Prayatna Nepal team assisted the participants.
On the third day of the training, Mr. Khom guided the participants to use mobile application called Cash Reader that is used to identify money. The participants were given practical orientation to use this application, for which the assistant facilitator and logistic staffs guided them. Then, Mr. Khom Raj Sharma proceeded with his session on travelling with technology where he informed the participants about Google Map and a commonly used ride sharing application called In drive. Mr. Khom also guided the participants to use Google Maps to navigate directions and travel with the help of technology. Similarly, he also informed the participants about other Google applications such as Gmail and contact management. In this session, they learnt more about composing and sending emails, through practical demonstration and assignments. For this, Mr. Khom asked the participants to send him an email where they were asked to be attentive in writing subject, body and recipient. For this, the assistant facilitator and Prayatna Nepal team supported the practical demonstration. Not only that, they also learnt about mobile banking and e-wallet. They also learned about Google assistant and its use to browse internet using smart phones. Then the participants were divided into groups for group activity to learn more about the learnt applications practically.
On fourth day of the training, Mr. Khom started the day by sharing more about email writing and internet browsing. He also explained more about Chat GPT. In this session, the participants were sensitized on importance of making digital platforms accessible to all (persons with or without disability). He also highlighted that making digital platforms accessible means making it accessible to all, and not only for persons with disabilities. He pointed out that accessibility can be achieved if Universal design (one design that fits everyone) is followed. Later, Ms. Sarita took over session on digital safety, privacy, and well-being. She used both practical and theoretical method to clear the concept for which the participants were asked to check how secured their individual passwords are using an online site. She then encouraged the participants to keep the passwords strong and use safety measures like two-factor authentication in social media wherever it’s applicable. She also briefly engaged the participants in practical demonstration to navigate some accessibility functions in their smart phones. After this, Mr. Khom helped the participants to revise and gave them time to ask if they have any questions so far.
After some discussion and sharing, Mr. Khom with the help of Ms. Ritu conducted post-test. Then, Ms. Sarita asked the participants to give anonymous feedback about the four days training. For this, the logistic staffs distributed braille paper to the participants where they jotted down their thoughts/reviews. At the end of the program, Ms. Sarita thanked Mr. Khom for facilitating the four days training and also requested all the participants to share what they learnt or liked about the training. There was a unanimous opinion that this session helped them understand basic yet important aspects of assistive technology that will help them become more digitally independent.
