Smartphone app changes learning for Uganda’s visually impaired students

Access to braille texts remains a major challenge for many visually impaired students in Africa. Slow progress in the advancement of assistive technology has led to many school dropouts. Now, a group of Ugandan developers has come up with a Blind Assistant app that helps read documents aloud. In the central Ugandan district of Mukono, Sir Apollo Kaggwa Secondary School is among the first to have received training for its 24 visually impaired students and their helpers. According to a 2014 national census, there are an estimated 250,000 visually impaired people in Uganda. Of those, around 1,500 are schoolchildren. With limited resources, many of these students have had to rely on their classmates for their day-to-day assistance, including reading and getting around to classes. “Reading notes has not been easy, because our friends tend to be too busy,” explains visually impaired student Ahmad Muwonge. “By the time you want to read, everything is too much, and this app, the Blind Assistant, has come to solve all those problems, we are able to read on our own and in the time that we want.” The new smartphone app is changing the lives of visually impaired students. Designed by local company, Suzie Water Harvesting Co., the Blind Assistant app is one of several accessibility apps taking advantage of a smartphone’s camera, mobility, and connectivity. Developers say most students had no access to these technologies, so they came up with a local solution. Michael Mambo, who heads the school’s learners with special needs unit, says in the past, visually impaired students could not afford expensive assistive devices, so they were being left out. App developer Frank Akankwasa believes the Blind Assistant app could solve many societal challenges faced by visually impaired people. Currently, smartphones are given to students for free after training. Ahmad Muwonge says such training will help beyond just the classroom. “I can use it as I’m traveling, it can assist me to read whatever I am passing by,” he says. Developers hope to equip more than 1,000 students across Uganda. This article was provided by The Associated Press.