THURSDAY, MAY 8TH
Council trains 3 blind persons, 10 workers on e-library
MAY 8, 2014 5:53 AM0 COMMENTSVIEWS:
ABUJA – The Nigeria Press Council (NPC) said three blind men and 10 other workers benefited from its e-library training.
The Acting Executive Secretary of the council, Mr Nnamdi Njemanze, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the participants underwent a one-day training on the usage and applications of e-library.
He said that the programme would enable them to read and use computers and Internet made available to the blind, partially impaired and workers of the council.
According to him, the training was to make it possible for the blind to browse the Internet without much stress.
“The system talks back to the blind person operating the system; he or she hears it and responds by typing and the computer now retrieved the kind of documents you want in the process,’’ he explained.
“When the document is retrieved, then the person chooses to listen to it, then the soft ware reads the whole material to him, and if he finds any need to print the document, the person can do that through braille embosser.
“The braille embosser is actually a computer printer but is not printing like the normal text; is actually punching dots on paper to enable the blind to read.
“The training will also enable the blind person to update his or her knowledge about what is happening in the world around him or her,” he said.
The secretary promised to make the materials available for public use in the country, especially the blind people to visit these facilities and enable them to read newspapers and other written materials.
He said that a newspaper could be scanned and converted to text and then printed out in braille or listened to by the blind people.
According to him, the blind now has the advantage of getting information like other normal persons.
Njemanze said that the training would also benefit the councils, especially in the areas of computer usages and applications.
Besides, he said that the training would increase the staff productivity and service delivery.
The equipment for the training was provided to the council under the auspices of the Democratic Governance for Development Project of the UNDP.
“This will assist the council to provide persons with visual disability to use the e-library as well as convert the visual contents of the library to braille format.
“It will also enable them to benefit from the media resources on journalism, mass communication, politics and democracy,” he said.
He said that the equipment for the training included Braille Printer and Embossers to print e-library content for visually impaired persons.
Njemanze expressed optimism that the library would provide free access to members of the public, when fully inaugurated.
“This project is the third phase of the letter of agreement signed with UNDP to facilitate the understanding of Freedom of Information Act and other media related issues.
“The project is also to ensure the incorporation of governance and democracy issues in the curriculum of journalism and mass communication driving institutions in the country,” he said.
He said that the training would also involve developing the capacity of Nigerian journalists on conflict and sensitive reporting, to engender peace building and conflict resolution in the country.
He expressed gratitude to UNDP for the support it had given to the council and promised to sustain the relationship. (NAN)