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This will be an opportunity for alleviating one of the biggest problems of the blind persons – communication with their surroundings, says Zharko Selkovski, president of the Macedonian Association of the Blind.

Text will be converted into sound, bringing a ray of light in the dark. For the first time, the blind people in our country will be able to read texts in Macedonian on their computers, send e-mails, be a part of the information society. This will be made possible with the special programs, realized by the computer firm “Semos” and the “Dnevnik” newspaper. The presentation of the project that will significantly alleviate the past problems of the blind in using the computers will be held on the 19th of December, 2007, in the premises of the Macedonian Association of the Blind.

From this day on, not only will the blind persons be able to read the texts on the computer screens in Macedonian language, but they will also be able to completely replace the expensive programs purchased from other countries with the two new programs – NVDA (electronic screen reader), and the voice synthesizer “e-speak”.
 
The two programs for reading screen text will be available free of charge to the blind. Previously, they were able to purchase screen readers and voice synthesizers only from other countries. However, the synthesizers could not read all of the letters of the Macedonian alphabet, and they are also not cheap – they cost up to EUR 2.000.
The blind or visually impaired persons could not afford this kind of expense so far, since they are mostly unemployed or have a modest monthly income.

Gerasim Vanchev, director of Semos, says that the main motive for them in managing this project was the desire to help the blind persons.

“It would be impossible for the blind persons to use the computers without programs of this kind. Their high price is an additional barrier for the greater use of the computers by the blind persons. The programs that our firm adapted and that are free for use, will lead to the mass use of computers by the blind persons – stressed Vanchev.

These programs represent a technical basis that will be constantly upgraded in the future. It is expected that governmental and nongovernmental organizations would be included in this project. The people from the Macedonian Association of the Blind hailed this project.

It is unnecessary to explain how much will it mean to these users to be able to use the internet, to communicate with other persons by e-mail, to write texts on the computer by themselves. This will be the solution of one of the greatest problems of the blind persons – communicating with their surroundings.

Source: Dnevnik