Vision-Aid

Vision-Aid announces Panelists for Boston Accessibility Conference

The Boston Accessibility Conference on Saturday October 27th at the Fidelity Offices in downtown Boston, MA. Vision-Aid is sponsoring a panel "Making MOOCs more accessible to the visually impaired".

Making MOOCs more accessible.

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are opening an exciting world of learning for many. Great strides have been made in the area of accessibility. However barriers still remain which can make some of the content in MOOCs inaccessible to persons with disabilities. A concentrated effort to overcome as many of the remaining barriers in accessibility as possible, can make MOOCs a vibrant and inclusive learning place for all. The World Health Organization estimates that there are over 250 million people worldwide with low vision and around 40 million who are blind. How can we make MOOCs content and platforms fully accessible to this segment?

A high-powered panel of experts will explore this subject from many perspectives:

the challenges and needs of visually impaired learners.
the innovations by MOOC platform providers.
the role of educational institutions, employers and technology providers, whose inputs are needed to offer a holistic solution.
the role of modern technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) in addressing these challenges.

Thank you Dr. Chuck, University of Michigan and Coursera!

The Vision-Aid team was honored and delighted to present a memento, as a token of our deep appreciation and affection for Dr. Chuck, a legendary Coursera educator from the University of Michigan who is visiting India currently. Ms. Jayanthi, Program Coordinator for Vision-Aid’s programming course had a delightful meeting with Dr. Chuck, and expressed sincere thanks to him on behalf of all our visually impaired students who learn programming from his highly accessible, universally popular course “Programing for Everyone” taught via Coureera, which is rated by Class Central to be one of the top 20 MOOCs in the world!

Vision-Aid invites you to Boston Accessibility Conference 2018

Boston Accessibility Conference 2017 — The Vision-Aid team is excited to announce the next major event, a series of speakers and panels at a Conference co-sponsored by Vision-Aid : The Boston Accessibility Conference on Saturday October 27th at the Fidelity Offices in downtown Boston, MA. This is a FREE event, open to the public. Conference and registration information can be found below. Registration is currently open.

Vision-Aid Invites you to a workshop & virtual information sessions

Vision-Aid is organizing a Partner Training Program at Vizag. Trainers from Vision-Aid programs from different parts of India, Agra, Madurai, Berhampur, Hyderabad, are attending these workshops. The workshop is an intensive one-week workshop that will cover subjects that are geared towards students with visual impairment.

Vision-Aid rolls out programming course for Juniors at Nethra Blind School Hyderabad

Vision-Aid volunteers Sulochana Devadas and Sonal Patel teamed up for several months to design an entry level programming course for our visually impaired students that could help address the needs of our youngest students (typical age is 14 - 18). After an initial online-only rollout, which was successfully run for 6 months with these students, the course has taken its next steps – for the first time being taught in a blind school setting in India at Nethra Vidyalaya near Hyderabad.

First Phase of Vision-Aid National Resource Center at Aravind to launch on October 1

In July this year, Vision-Aid entered into a partnership with Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, to establish a National Resource Center (NRC) for the visually impaired at Aravind’s main campus in Madurai.

Calling all Volunteers to teach Computer Programming to the Visually Impaired

Starting September 5th 2018, Vision-Aid is offering its fifth session of advanced technical training to teach the visually impaired.

After successfully completing a pilot for teaching computer programming to the visually impaired in 2016, and 3 more series of classes in 2017-18, we are happy to announce a new course for Fall 2018. The program will run for 9 months, in 2 semesters (Fall 2018 and Spring 2019) – with a short break in between the semesters.

Update on Vision-Aid programs at work in Sankara Netralaya

In 2017, Vision-Aid entered into a partnership with Sankara Netralaya (SN), in Chennai India to establish a National Resource Center for the Visually Impaired. During the first phase of this project, Vision-Aid has been working closely with the Low Vision Clinic at SN to help bring affordable technology-based devices to its poorest segment of visually impaired patients.