Braille typewriter for visually impaired
The Namibia-Angola office of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) in cooperation with the Namibian Federation for the Visually Impaired (NFVI) yesterday handed over a Perkins Brailler Classic Manual and a Tactile Heat Swell Form Machine to aid in the translation of text into Braille.The federation aims to promote democratic participation of the Namibian disability sector and to provide them with access to information.
“When we focus on people with visual impairments, we should keep in mind that this demographic, which makes up the majority of people with disabilities in Namibia, may not be able to read the types of books that most of us read or access information in the way most of us do,” explained KAS staff member Natalie Russmann.
In light of this, she said that: “KAS is proud to launch, together with the NFVI, a special initiative to help people with visual impairments and the broader disabled sector in Namibia to access information, particularly on the Namibian Constitution, so they know their rights.
“As part of this collaboration, we have already started translating and printing the Namibian Constitution in Grade 1 Braille.”
The federation’s Braille proofreader, Mwangelwa Purity Hashiyana, thanked KAS. “The ability to do things yourself is part of the greatest pride a man can have in his life. Always being fed or being helped doesn't really fulfil a person's desires. We are so grateful for this support. We can now do math, physics and even geography because we can now print our own maps. I will never have to ask anyone again where the Tropic of Capricorn is, because I’ll be able to feel it myself thanks to the machine that can draw it in for me.”