Experience of the PAVI With ICT

Who we are? PAVI is a group of Parents of People with Visual impairment children or visually impaired themselves, who change their disabilities to Abilities PAVI Mission Change the live of Visually impaired by  Medical treatment  Advocacy  Raising awareness  Integration  Inclusion  Awarness about low vision  Importance of ICT Parents Association of People with Visual Impairment (PAVI)

Situation of Visually Impaired in Egypt

Magnitude of the problem of Visual Disability In Egypt (WHO) Egypt population 72 million National estimate of totally blind vary from 35.3 thousand to 737 thousand WHO estimate of Visual impaired in Egypt is 4% i. e million No national estimate of low vision persons World wide estimate for every blind person there are 3 Low vision persons

Situation of Visually Impaired Persons in Egypt Number of student special education 2605 ICT is a subject not a media for learning El Azhar have 2591 Student learn by hearing Most of low vision are in regular school they drop out in early stages A number of low vision student are in blind schools Number of visually impaired students in Universities1033 ICT labs are there but not for learning Choice for universities is not open 90 % of the V.I females & 70% of V.I males are illiterate More than 70% are economically deprived Significant social and cultural barriers. The main support groups available in Egypt are mostly from the parents of V. I children.

 They are in regular schools  They have accessibility at work place  They study what they want in University  They have accessibility to information Situation of the visually impaired world wide with Technology

Why ICT?  ICT for visually Impaired is his eyes to see the world  It reduce the impact of his disability  It is the best way for communication

USAID IBM Ministry of Communication and Information Technology PAVI Partner ship in ICT program for visually impaired person UniversitiesNGO National Libraries Schools

Aims of the project  To raise awareness of ICT among both visually impaired and the general public.  To train approximately 40 computer instructors for the visually impaired.  To upgrade the ICT Resource Center at PAVI. The aim of the project is to make ICT accessible to the visually impaired in Egypt, and thereby, enhance their opportunities to learn, live, and work independently. The three main objectives for achieving this aim are:

Awareness Campaigns/Workshops  NGOs, GOs  Parents, Service Providers  The Visually Impaired Training and Capacity Building  Training of Instructors  Training the Visually Impaired  Rehabilitation for Sighted and Blind Trainees  Production of Instructor Manuals/Student Work Books  Teaching skills Project Components

Out come of our 8 month ICT project 56 took the TOT training (only 27 Certified trainer) Trainer trained another 157 students Having trainee in six different governorate in Egypt Having trainee from different places national Libraries / blind schools/ Universities / NGOs / Institute of research and statistical studies Have a specialized manual in E-format / Braille / low vision Have a display for adaptive technology (software and Hardware) in PAVI Have a small talking library The first certified IBM computer centre for the visually impaired in the Middle East.

Success stories  Walid :- loosing his job.  Khaled / Hassan : Got job in technology instituted in Saudi Arabia  Mohamed s: responsible for computer training In rehabilitation of the Military  Mohamed A: working in marketing consulting company  Fatma / Mohamed R / Magdy : They all went back for their master degree. Depending on them self These are example of some success story from the project but there is a lot of others of our member, who ICT change their life from being disable to able

 Programming  10 student took programming with IBM  Out of the 10 student 3 under 15 years old  VB Net 2005  Working on regular material softcopy  9 of them past their 1 st exam  Summer program  Last summer 7 student from school  Inclusion  Protocol with the Ministry of education  Change school books to E-format  Integrate 10 cases in schools  Integrate 15 cases in NGO  Work on illiteracy program on computer Building on

Our hopes and Mission for ICT and visually impairment  To consider accessibility in internet sides To work on the pricing of talking soft ware  To have E-books accessible for visually impaired  To advocate for the importance of ICT for the visually impaired  To have a computer for every visually impaired