Project Coordinator: Dang Hoai Phuc

This project was sponsored by the Overbrook-Nippon Network on Educational Technology, www.on-net.org
Project time: May 1, 2006 - Dec 30, 2006

Over years, the assistive technology has benefited visually impaired people a lot in most of living activities such as learning, working, getting and sharing information, entertainment, living independently. So to help visually impaired persons have knowledge and skills to access to the assistive technology is really a need. This proposal would like to develop a training material which trains the blind computer knowledge and skills to obtain benefits mentioned above. Another big barrier that causes difficulty to non-speaking-English visually impaired persons for further learning and updating their knowledge with new software’s is the English skills. Because most of powerful assistive technologies are developed in the English language interface. This proposal also would like to develop an English self-learning tutorial for Vietnamese visually impaired persons to learn basic English skills.

Objectives of the project:
1. Writing a Vietnamese computer training material for visually impaired persons, which is covered topics mentioned in the part 1 (Proposal Description) and produced under following format types: Braille/electronic files, audio tutorial, digital talking book (DAISY format) and online tutorial.

2. Writing a basic English self-learning tutorial for Vietnamese visually impaired persons, which is covered subjects Grammar, Reading and Writing; and then, producing it under following format types: Braille/electronic files, audio tutorial, digital talking book (DAISY format) and online tutorial

3. Developing the Jaws scripts to work accessible with the powerful Vietnamese/English -> English/Vietnamese -> English/English Lac Viet dictionary software.

Project Description:
The Development of Computer Training and English Self-learning Materials proposal contains two main parts, developing a computer training material with different accessible types and an basic English self-learning program for Vietnamese visually impaired persons.

For the Computer Training part, we will base on the existing learning materials at Sao Mai and upgrade the content to the latest access software’s. Besides, we will include some new topics in the new training material.

Topics covered in the material are:

1. Vietnamese Talking Software’s: Writing tutorials for current Vietnamese talking software’s such as NDC Talking Editor, VMV Utility, Mata Soft Kit and Saomai Word/NetTalk.

2. Jaws Basics: We cover all things regarding to basic functions of Jaws such as ways to start Jaws, Voice Adjustment, configuring Windows for better working with Jaws, Jaws installation/maintenance.

3. Windows OS: Understanding and exploring Windows areas such as Start Menu, Desktop, how Windows works basically, how to use Jaws to access different areas of Windows, using some Windows utilities such as Windows Explorer, Run, Find etc. Besides, the tutorial will also cover topics how to interact with different controls of Windows such as Buttons, Combo Box, List box... and typical layout of applications.

4. Microsoft Word/Excel/Powerpoint/Internet Explorer: For this, I will base the layout of the Microsoft tutorial provided by ON-NET and the audio tutorial from Freedom Scientific to write it in Vietnamese. In addition to Internet Explorer part, we will include a short part talking about how to use Mozilla Firefox with Jaws.

5. Openbook (OCR): Also, We will base on the layout of the Openbook help to write the tutorial in Vietnamese. In addition, we include a short part about how to use Kurzweil and Omni Page.

6. Jaws Intermediate: We cover basic customization topics of Jaws for better working with applications such as Custom Highlight Assign, Windows-class reassign, Skim Reading, Speech and Sound Manager, Dictionary Manager, Setting Packager, Prompt creator, and some other popular dialogues in Configuration Manager.

After finishing the content of the computer training material, we will produce it in different accessible format types below:

· Braille/electronic tutorial files
· Audio Tutorial
· Digital Talking Book (DAISY format)
· Online Tutorial

For the developing of an English Self-learning part:

We will develop an English self-learning program designed especially for visually impaired people, which covers basic subjects such as Grammar, Reading and Writing. Besides, we also write scripts for Jaws to work with Lac Viet dictionary software which is considered as the most popular and powerful Vietnamese/English -> English/Vietnamese -> English/English application in Vietnam.