By Camila Urbina y Maria Fernanda Anzola | Makaia Comunnications team
We have the best news! As you may know from our last report, we had planned to give 3 training sessions, one each for a library, a telecentre and a social organization. A person could choose one of the different programs we offer, according to the relevant group of people in their communities, which would be taught the use of the ICT tools to improve their quality of life and inclusion in society.
Thanks to your generous donations, our training aimed at one library spread further than we had planned!
In search of the library that we were going to choose for the training, we contacted the Library Network (a program of the EPM Foundation) and the Medellin Library System, who were delighted to partner up with MAKAIA to make our training even broarder, highlighting the importance of training trainers, extending the invitation, not to one library to gain the skills to bring inclusion to their community, but to all librarians and library professionals in the city!
The Library Network (a program of the EPM Foundation) and the Medellin Library System chose our training session for people with visual disabilites, that taught librarians and library professionals not only how to approach and interact with this target populations, but also how to use the JAWS software, that allows blind or visually impared people to use any computer and navigate the web, and teach others.
The training was held on June 25th at the EPM Library, providing at first an overview of how to work with people with a visual impairment, then exploring software features, the process of downloading, installing and custom settings for anyone who intends to use the program, and finally there was a practical stage in which browser exercises were held, just for them to know the basic commands and functioning.
Luis David Elorza, MAKAIA trainer and leader of the process, says "is not enough to generate access, meaning physical and technical conditions for people with disabilities on how to use computers and softwares, but it is equally important, to generate accessibility for people with disability and this training sessions give us the opportunity to bring forth that accesibility."
On the other hand, Liliana Martinez, one of the participants in the event of the Libraries System CONFAMA said: "In our libraries we don’t have a concrete approach or project for visually and hearing disabled people, but as a library we feel the duty to provide these spaces for inclusion, that’s why it’s so important for me to have this experience, because apart from being at a training, it was a life changing experience that shows us the ways to have inclusive and respectful projects that can mark a difference. Through this experience I realized all the potential that people with disabilities have”.
These are great news, because now the program will have a greater range and will be used and learned all over the city, creating new and wide opportunities for inclusion. Giving people with disabilities in Medellín a chance to expand their knowledge, study and even create their own business. Thanks to your generosity they now can access more than 19 libraries that can provide them with skills to change their life.
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By Camila Urbina Escobar | Communicator
By Camila Urbina | Communicator
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