Published on Nov 8, 2004

Blind people will soon be able to have a computer to access the Internet at a much lower cost. To give an equal opportunity to the disabled and improve their quality of life, Prince of Songkhla University has been developing a Braille notebook computer for the blind.

Pichaya Tandayya of the university’s Computer Engineering Department, who leads the project, said the aim is to reduce the cost of imported devices for blind people and offer them the opportunity to use information technology.

Planning to spend two years developing the computer prototype, the university has joined with Mahidol University and the Thailand Association of the Blind on the project.

The National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre has granted the working group a research budget of Bt5.4 million.

Pichaya said the computer would be designed to allow the blind to use computers and conveniently access the Internet. It will come with the functions of input, processing and output functions.

Instead of being equipped with dozens of buttons, it will come with seven buttons called Braille cells to facilitate easy typing.

There will be also a Braille-character system to enable users to easily read and check what they type.

The notebook’s keyboard will work like the shorthand that makes it possible to write messages, using combinations of these seven keys. Its size is therefore only one-third the normal notebook size.

It is designed to output through both an LCD monitor and Braille language to allow blind and sighted people to “see” the same message.

Apart from Braille, it also comes with Thai and English-ASCII language and Thai Braille Grad 1 and 2, as well as Thai-to-English and English-to-Thai translation software.

ASCII is short for American Standard Code for Information Interchange.

It represents English characters as numbers, with each letter assigned a number from 0 to 127.

It is open-source software designed to enable use with other devices on the market, such as printers, scanners and digital cameras.

“Instead of paying Bt200,000 to buy one imported Braille notebook, if the research is completed and we find a company to handle the commercial production, the cost of owning a Braille notebook for the blind will be tremendously reduced,” said Pichaya.

Asina Pornwasin

The Nation

asina@nationgroup.com