Giving Light to Those who Lack the Gift of Sight Through Technology
Going beyond what society dictates, a group of blind computer enthusiasts put up Adaptive Technology for Rehabilitation, Integration and Empowerment of the Visually Impaired (ATRIEV) as the only computer school for the blind in the Philippines back in 1994. This admittedly ambitious undertaking strived to come up with innovative ways to help visually impaired people find educational and employment opportunities which were not there before.
At a time when training institutions for the blind are competing in massage and music training, ATRIEV pioneered computer literacy training for the blind in 1999. Back then, the blind themselves cannot see how technology can change their lives but ATRIEV continued to go against the tide and to date, ATRIEV has produced the first Filipino blind medical transcriptionist, the first Filipino blind recruitment specialist in a multinational call center company, the first visually impaired SEO manager, the first visually impaired web content writers, programmers and telsales agents. All these achievements were possible with the aid of adaptive technology that translates every keystroke and screen change into speech output.
“Some may find it hard to believe that a visually impaired individual can successfully operate a computer by himself, but that in essence is what makes up ATRIEV’s success. At a time when blind people were limited to certain jobs, ATRIEV worked to fight against the clichés and proved that as long as you have faith in your own capabilities and there are people willing to lend a helping hand, there are clearly no limits to what a person can do.” –Philippine Star, Nov. 15, 2009