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Cyber cafe for the visually challenged

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

BANGALORE: The National Association for the Blind, India (NAB) in association with Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd. has launched a Specialized Cyber Café for the visually impaired in New Delhi.

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Situated at the NAB Centre for Women in Hauz Khas, the Café was inaugurated by Mr. Rajiv Ratan Shah, IT Secretary, Government of India, in the presence of Dr. Rajendra T. Vyas, Honorary Secretary General, NAB India and Mr. Rajiv Kaul, Managing Director, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd. This is the second Cyber Café for the visually impaired that Microsoft is launching in association with NAB. The first Cyber Café was set up in Mumbai in May 2002.

The Delhi Cyber Café will be equipped with state-of-the-art hardware and software which includes IBM Pentium IV computers, multi media kits, scanner, CD writer, Microsoft Windows, Office XP, Kurzweil software, a dedicated LAN network and a Touchtel Zipnet Internet connection. The Cyber Café will empower the visually impaired to surf the Internet using JAWS software, which voice enables both input as well as the output commands.

Commenting on the launch of the Cyber Café, Padmashree Dr. Rajendra T. Vyas, Honorary Secretary General, NAB India said, "The world will not be the same for the visually impaired with the advent of such Cyber Cafes. We are extremely excited to be working with Microsoft India towards enabling the visually challenged to gain access to a vast ocean of knowledge and information as also enhancing their employment opportunities. The already existing Cyber Café in Mumbai has enabled visually impaired professionals like lawyers, businessmen to gain independence in commerce and access to the world of the commerce industry and education."

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Elaborating on the Cyber Café launch, Rajiv Kaul, Managing Director, Microsoft Corporation India Private Limited said, " We have a special responsibility to give back to the community we operate in, and our association with NAB to set-up cyber cafes for the visually impaired is a significant step in this direction."

"The cyber café will play an instrumental role in empowering the visually impaired to explore the same opportunities that access to the web provides to all of us. Additionally, judging by the tremendous response that we received for the cyber café in Mumbai we are looking forward to opening similar cafes in other cities across the country as well." added Rajiv.

The Cyber Café creates an opportunity for the visually impaired to be gainfully employed and also enjoy the benefits of surfing the Web. It also makes available IT resources like word processing, downloading and printing text in Braille etc. at a place that the visually impaired frequent.

The Cyber Café will be operational for use on a daily basis between 11:00 am and 7 pm and will be supervised by a computer trained instructor. Additionally, a team of volunteers from the Hauz Khas vicinity, schools and universities including IIT Delhi will dedicate time daily to the visually impaired with basic computer training like creating word documents, formatting errors, spell checks etc.

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