Access one and all

By Vidya Srinivasa Rao
Friday, 11 July 2003

This unique online initiative caters to the needs of the physically challenged.

An endeavour to cater to the needs of the physically challenged community and offer them education and training in job-related skills required for employment in the new economy are the primary goals of this online endeavour.

Aptly called, EnableAll.Org, it kicked off in May 2002 with the coverage of the FIFA Football World Cup, for the blind. "It was the first ever accessible coverage of a live event online in India, and perhaps even in the world," says Sachin Mehrish, who manages the effort, currently still in its soft launch phase. The disabled audience could 'surf' the Web using screen-reading software that read out the text on the computer screen in a synthesised voice.

Born as a result of a market research conducted to identify the needs of people with disabilities in India by Enabling Dimensions, the site mainly caters to the visually challenged community. The results of the study showed that there was a tremendous need for education and training in job-related skills relevant today. "A big concern for people with disabilities is to find suitable, well-paying jobs with better growth opportunities than the traditional avenues like for instance, candle-making," says Mehrish.

In another survey conducted by them amongst the visually challenged computer and Net users, it was found that more that 75% of them felt the need for an online community for interaction and information. Based on these studies, Mehrish found that an online self-help community for people with disabilities that provides them relevant information was the order of the day.

Some of the ways the physically challenged can benefit from this site, says Mehrish, are to give them access to a common pool of knowledge and resources and aid problem solving with peer interaction and self-help. The effort also provides Web-based education and training for acquiring relevant skills, employment facilitation and improves their lives by empowering them.

Says Mehrish: "Our main focus is to develop EnableAll.Org to become a forward-looking online community for the visually challenged and then scale up to cater to people across disabilities."

The site already has several channels like education and employment, news updates for the physically challenged, success stories and legal issues. Special events are also covered on this site exclusively for people with disabilities.

The response has been highly encouraging, says Mehrish. "We work closely with the user group and apex bodies such as National Association for the Blind and Blind Relief Association and take their feedback and guidance to identify special needs."

EnableAll.Org has been recently selected as the winner for Social Entrepreneurship Laboratory 2003* by Hewlett Packard and Digital Partners, a non-profit organisation based in Seattle.

Future plans, shares Mehrish, include employment matchmaking and placement services with the help of a database of job seekers with disabilities and equal opportunity employers. The site will also aim to provide specialised e-learning courses like 'audio-only' e-learning courseware for the blind, as well as career counselling, interview and CV drafting skills.

Training on skills relevant to the new economy with the help of CBT (computer based training) and WBT (Web based training) to help the community find employment opportunities in areas like call centres, back-office operations, coaching for competitive exams for government jobs and developing self-employment skills are other services are being planned. Accessible tools for interaction like chat and discussion boards will be provided, encouraging participation online.

"People with disabilities often operate in a closed information circles comprising of students and friends from their school who have kept in touch," says Mehrish. "An online self-help community for such people will go a long a way in enhancing their employability in the new economy and improve the quality of their lives."

(* Social Entrepreneurship Laboratory has been established by Digital Partners to support those whose vision and business models seek to use ICT to empower the poor and their under served communities)