Following the establishment of the Braille centre at the National Commission for persons with Disabilities three years ago, the Commission today, in Abuja put together a 2- day capacity building on transcription of printed materials into braille format with the use of embossing technology.
The training scheduled to hold from the 17th and 18th July, 2024 is targeted at producing more Braille tech-oriented persons who will in turn become trainers to the visually impaired in Nigeria.
Addressing the participants at the workshop, the Executive Secretary NCPWD, Dr. James David Lalu who was represented at the event by the Director, Social Integration Department , Mr Lawrence Idemudia informed that the Commission is working in line with its mandate to provide Assistive Technology that will enhance the activities of Persons with disabilities in their various fields of endeavours.
Lalu, however, mentioned that many persons with visual impairment are hampered by their inability to access printed materials which could ordinarily benefit them.
He described this factor as a propellant to his passion to critically look into the alternative that will provide inclusivity to the education of the visually impaired in the society.
The Executive Secretary equally seized the occasion to assure the participants of the determination of the Commission to procure more equipment that will make the transcription process seamless for the visually impaired.
“Let me reiterate our commitments to make the Braille centre an enviable attraction that can help the Blind community develop interest in research works and to generate income for the braille literates” he added.
He further disclosed that the training can actually provide the participants with the requisite knowledge to become trainers in the future, thereby, empowering them to earn additional income.
Dr Lalu further appreciated The Leprosy Mission Nigeria (TLMN) for their continued support for the project and other areas of disability support programmes since they came to Nigeria.
One of the facilitators, Mr. Adeola Aina provided an overview on the introduction to handling braille equipment with a background of the alphabets and numeric recognition.
According to him, the Embosser technology is one that enables the visually impaired in the society to transform printed materials into readable format using the Optical Character Recognition software (OCR) and Duxbury braille.
While describing the transcription process, the second facilitator, Mrs. Olaniyi Dorcas said that the first step is to purchase the license key for the Optical character recognition software which will be installed on the computer system.
This, she said will be followed by connecting the scanner to the computer system which displays the OCR icon that enables the user to scan the hard copy into an editable format before it is printed or embossed.