7 August 2009

Pact has decided to buy screen reading software to enable blind and visually impaired clients to use computers.

JAWS software makes computers accessible by conveying the information displayed on the screen via text-to-speech.

Pact information services manager Dita Ciulacu says that practically everything people do with a mouse JAWS users do with a keyboard.

“What you see when you click, they can hear. When you look at the menu and you see File and then you see New, Open and so on, they can hear that.”

The decision to get JAWS began with the move to computerising Pact’s systems. One Dunedin-based Pact staff member who is visually impaired had been use a magnifying device to read paper documents but the changes meant few documents would be on paper anymore.

Together with people from Foundation For The Blind, the staff member met with Dita, where Dita was shown the JAWS system.

“It was mindblowing for me - the idea of having somebody who is blind being able to use a computer... It’s wonderful. I thought this is just a huge opportunity.”

While the software for the staff member has been paid for by government-funding Dita wondered if it might also be useful for clients.

Pact has two visually impaired clients – one in Dunedin and one in Gore. The Dunedin client’s parents had previously paid for him to do the training, but the software was too expensive to buy. Dita also discovered Pact has a second visually impaired staff member in Pact Otago.

She proposed that Pact buy a five-licence package meaning five people (Pact clients or staff) could use the software. The Pact Board of Trustees approved the proposal in July.

Dita says that decision shows Pact is the kind of NGO (non-government organisation) which cares enough about its clients to go that one step further and offer them this kind of special service – even though Pact itself is not funded to provide it.

“If it’s only one client in 800 we can help to access computers and information then I think it’s worth it.”

Dita says she had previously no idea the JAWS software existed for the visually impaired.

“It’s just a big, big door opened for them. They can read anything online and these days you can find almost anything online. To be able to read a newspaper every day and be in touch with people because now you can read and send emails - it’s an ordinary life. They can do what we take for granted.”

Dita says JAWS means the staff member can do exactly what her colleagues are doing. The training for her is already underway and going well.

“She will be able to do what every other support worker is doing so it is a huge step and she is quite thrilled about it.”

The training is covering accessing client files and reading and writing client notes. Further down the track the training will cover incident reporting.

“That’s a bit more complicated and we’ll need to make some changes in the software.”