Organized by the Society of Professionals with Visual Disabilities and the Kenya PIC
Held at the Kenya Public Information Center, on Monday, 24- 26 April, 2006 
| Training session for the disabled |
The Kenya PIC and the Society of Professionals with Visual Disabilities (SOPVID), conducted a three day training program for visually impaired students from the Kenya Society for the Blind, starting Monday 24 - 26 April, 2006. The training program provided the students with the knowledge of the value and usefulness of the internet, how to access information, about websites and how to interact with html documents. The course material was designed to ensure that at the end of the training, the students should be able to: - Open internet explorer and visit any web site and access it’s text content, understand the document layout, similarities to and how it differs from other Windows applications.
- Access the various elements within web sites such as links, headings, buttons, combo boxes, check boxes, frames, which increase interaction between the user and the site in obtaining information from the web.
- Use navigation keys within these documents to achieve quick results and movement within the document.
- Use forms to interact actively where such action is required such as when using search engines to input data or to fill forms where necessary.
- Use of e-mail especially yahoo (all students had a yahoo account) to open, compose, forward, reply to and delete messages.
| Training session for the disabled |
Six students attended the training and were accompanied by Edwin Osundwa, the Head tutor at the Kenya Society for the Blind (KSB) who also their regular trainer. Two of the students have partial sight while four are totally blind. They all use Jaws screen reader to help facilitate information access and to undertake their day to day tasks. The training sessions, which took place between 9.00am and 12.30pm, went on smoothly. It was notable however that some students had very poor typing skills which can be improved through further training and regular practice. James Gichuhi, a member and the trainer from SOPVID, conveyed on behalf of the students and SOPVID, their most sincere thanks to the World Bank for the assistance and facilitation. The “facilities at the PIC have enabled us to provide notes to the students both in Braille, print and for those interested, soft copies” he said. 
| Disabled group outside the PIC |
The students were informed that the training was offered freely, and that, should they wish, further training can be considered and that they should feel free to use the facilities at the Public Information Center to practice the skills learnt. In furtherance of objective to reach out and provide services, SOPVID has taken the liberty of the facilities offered at the World Bank's Public information Center, in working towards offering free website design and maintenance for Disabled Persons’ Organizations, which can be hosted for free at the African Decade Secretariat in South Africa. Plans to increase the number of training sessions are being considered. |
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