We in the west could learn something from these folks.

(And horray for Reuters for reporting this.)

Peter

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Blind lead the blind in Vietnam computer project

By David Brunnstrom


HO CHI MINH CITY, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Dinh Thanh Tung is a whizz on a
keyboard.

He can belt out a stirring rendition of Beethoven's ``Fur Elise,'' or surf
the Internet with deft ease.

Not perhaps so remarkable, even for a 13-year-old, except that Tung has been
blind since birth and the people who taught him his piano and computer skills
are blind too.

At the Bung Sang, or ``flashlight,'' school in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City,
the saying ``blind leading the blind'' conveys no cynicism -- it's a very
proud boast.

The specialist school was established in 1985 for blind orphans and street
kids from the Mekong Delta by Vietnamese musician and poet Dao Khanh Truong,
who has himself been blind since contracting measles at the age of six.

Music has been its core activity, but last October, it launched a computer
project helped by a Venice-based non-government organisation Associazione
Mantovan and funded by the European Commission, the EU and Italy's Bolzano
province.

UNDREAMT OF LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

Professor Amedeo Pignatelli, a former Italian diplomat who is a consultant to
the project, said computers had opened up undreamt of learning opportunities
for the students.

Speech and audio programmes allow them to learn typing skills so they can
submit written school work for the first time and to create and use a braille
and audio library.

While thousands of books are published in Vietnamese each year, only a dozen
or so are converted into braille, a gap the school hopes to help fill with
specialised braille printers.

``By using the computers they can access books, articles, encyclopedias any
time they want,'' said Pignatelli. ``And they can then develop the same
reading skills and study skills that we decided to develop since we were
children.

``The objective is to create a group of teachers, so that the teachers will
be able to teach the others in the community and outside the community.''

The 40 boys and 12 girls at Bung Sang, whose ages range from five to 24, are
a tightly knit group already used to helping each other.

They wend their way from class-to-class through busy alleys and onto the
street in a cheerful, giggly crocodile, each with their hands on the
shoulders of the person in front.

Computers are a thrilling prospect for them, says Truong. ``Music keeps us
together, but it is necessary to increase their knowledge in other fields.
The kids love computers, as they give them access to the world's most
advanced technology.

``They face a lot of difficulties: for example, the number of books available
in braille is really inadequate, and I just mean textbooks -- that's not to
mention newspapers and novels.

``At the moment they need someone to read textbooks to them so they can
rewrite them in braille. We want to overcome these difficulties and print
more books for children.''

The children's enthusiasm is obvious and they take to computer keyboards with
an agility that would put some professional web surfers to shame.

They find their way around the Internet with the help of audio commands to
audio sites catering specifically to the blind and with special braille
``display'' keyboards which push up blunt pins to allow them to read screen
information.

``THEIR FINGERS CAN THINK''

``They develop the keyboard skills in a few hours,'' said Pignatelli.
``Because they play music and love to practise they develop the ability every
quickly -- their fingers can think.''

The school (bungsang+hcm.fpt.vn) aims to establish its own website for blind
Vietnamese and while many of its students are adept in foreign languages and
can navigate sites now available, Internet music sites are their most
popular.

Dang Hoai Phuc, a trainee teacher who lost his sight in an explosion of old
Vietnam War ordnance and is now studying foreign languages at university, is
a particular fan.

``I like computers very much,'' he said. ``When I can go onto the Internet, I
can find information -- it's very interesting and very exciting.''

Phuc then clicked onto a music site and filled the room with a tuneful
accompaniment to a Vietnamese folk song.

While some of the children will go on to become teachers for other blind
children, many aspire to become professional musicians -- Tung wants to be a
concert pianist.

Though job options for the blind in Vietnam remain limited, computers do
broaden their options. They have enabled Phuc, for instance, to start
producing CDs of his own compositions.

With an estimated 600,000-700,000 blind people in Vietnam, 60,000-70,000 of
them of school age, and only five specialist schools catering for only a few
hundred, there is a pressing need for funding for more centres like Bung
Sang.

``I would like all blind people to be able to learn how to use computers.''
said Truong. ``Bung Sang is providing training to future teachers so they can
bring this technology to all the blind people in Vietnam.''

The project is clearly a hit, but perhaps its greatest benefit is to create
for a group of disadvantaged children a rare environment in which they can
feel in control, Pignatelli says.

``It makes them feel more confident -- it really does change their lives,''
he said. ``It makes them feel similar to you and me -- and they can do things
you and I can't do.

``It's very moving.''

21:31 09-07-00

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