new service offers guidance on different aspects of assistive technology for empowering visually impaired persons. Anyone can call or e-mail their queries or even send them by post. You can also visit the helpline desk within the National Association for the Blind (NAB) premises.

The assistive technology helpline team, supported by the NAB Technology Training Centre Faculty, will resolve the caller’s problems and will, as far as possible, provide a solution at that very time.

Besides offering counselling on assistive technology and advising vision-impaired users on which IT tools work best for them, the helpline can also be used for troubleshooting. For example, it can solve problems that are related to screen reading software, screen magnification software, optical recognition, mobile phone accessibility and commonly used applications such as word processors and spreadsheets.

In addition, consultancy is given to those wanting to buy computers that are accessible to the blind. The helpline disseminates information about the various training courses in the country, in the field of assistive technology. It also provides support to trainers and to anyone wanting to set up computer training centres/study rooms.

The service propagates ‘DAISY’ standards and pro-vides technical help in its implementation. It also gives advice for improving accessibility to websites and information about job opportunities in the field of technology for the visually impaired.