Friday, January 9, 2009

No more Mouse!

Yes, I said , "No more Mouse" and I am referring to the PC Mouse. Most of us, including myself when I was still sighted, have been so used to having the PC Mouse or the Mousepad on the laptop as a standard tool to execute the work on the computer. I would dare say that many of us would be helpless without the Mouse, would be left staring at the computer screen and not able to remember or recall the various Window keystroke commands learnt before.

I first visited MAB, Malaysian Association for the Blind in early March 2008 with my dear wife to explore if there were any program/s, e.g. counselling, etc to help me. I was feeling very depressed, weak and in the midst of recovering from the liver and eye operations which were performed in mid January 2008. Sad to say though, I too felt the pain and the sadness that my wife had to endure along with me but I could not do anything about it. The IT department caught my attention and I said to myself, "I must re learn IT skills, using whatever methods and technology that the department can offer." I found out then that a basic week long IT course was scheduled in March 2008 and signed up, but much to my disappointment, I had to give it a miss as my health condition was not ready. I managed to attend the said course in mid July 2008, the last basic course for the year. It was the best decision made then.

I shall always remember En. Rahim, Head of IT department and En. Fazlin, IT Instructor at MAB, for without them this blog would not have materialise. Without their support and kind assistance rendered in the re learning of IT for the visually impaired, I would not have been able to use JAWS Screen Reader software, Microsoft Window applications, Skype, MSN and emails without the need of using the PC Mouse! There is much more to learn and I will make it a point to attend all the available IT courses scheduled for this year, 2009.

En. Rahim's quote that remained entrenched in my mind.. "Here in MAB, there is only one race, i.e. the Blind race irrespective of anything else." En. Fazlin's quote which too, will be remembered.. "We, blind computer users, do not use mouse but we use our hands and fingers to move around the keyboard". Both gentlemen are also like me - visually impaired.

"True to say, "More challenging times ahead!"

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