In the second quarter of 2023, TDTB consistently fires on all cylinders to gear up for upcoming activities. In addition to our usual cultural experience activities, we embarked upon exciting new special projects! Let's see the behind-the-scenes efforts and review our service outcomes for the second quarter.
1. Activity Volunteer Training
TDTB conducted two volunteer training sessions this year to ensure the safe participation of visually impaired individuals in our cultural tour activities. The training aimed to equip first-time volunteers with the necessary skills for assisting visually impaired individuals with mobility. Volunteers were organized into pairs, with one person wearing a blindfold to simulate a visually impaired individual, while the other acted as a guide. Through this practical exercise, volunteers were able to familiarize themselves with potential scenarios they might encounter during the activities. After the simulation, we facilitated a communication session for volunteers to share their experiences and discuss ways to enhance their support for visually impaired participants.
Then, the volunteer Nini and Anne give us feedback from the practice:
Nini expressed, "I discovered a sense of uncertainty and fear when I took on the role of a visually impaired person. This practical experience has inspired me to provide more empathetic and effective support when guiding visually impaired individuals."
Anne added, "Engaging in this exercise has been incredibly meaningful; it has allowed me to see the world from the perspective of a person with a disability and to empathize with the difficulties they face."
2. Non-Visual Cultural Tours
We took our visually impaired friends to two remarkable locations: the National Palace Museum--the largest museum in Taiwan, and the Shilin Official Residence--a national monument.
Both venues provided exceptional barrier-free guided tour services, allowing visually impaired friends to immerse themselves in the content by physically touching the exhibits and relics. Many participants shared their thoughts after the tour, saying that touching the cultural objects deepened their impression of the visit. They also remarked that the explanations were quite detailed and left a lasting impression, enhancing their understanding of the history and culture. Some participants even expressed their desire for more such activities. TDTB is grateful for this positive feedback and is committed to continuing to provide enriching experiences for all.
3. Reading Club—"Super Gift" Special Lecture in Taipei
We recently held our first book club for "Super Gift", which was a momentous occasion. Alongside special lectures, we organized interactive workshops and discussions, providing a multifaceted experience for all attendees. Despite the significant challenges faced by TDTB in undertaking this event, it was incredibly rewarding.
We were fortunate to have the active participation of the visually impaired, their families, teachers, and friends. The most valuable aspect of the event was our ability to inspire and support them in overcoming the limitations and challenges they face. It was a humbling experience, and we are grateful for the opportunity to make a positive impact.
4. Website Accessibility Promotion
We have continued to make an effort to highlight the significance of web accessibility in education units this year. During our initial session, we had the opportunity to visit Yuan Ze University, where 91 teachers participated to gain an in-depth understanding of website accessibility and its design features. The session was aimed at providing a comprehensive overview of the subject matter.
5. Feedback from Tutoring Services Student Xuan
Xuan is a student who was born with visual impairment. For the third year in a row, TDTB has been providing him with one-on-one tutoring to learn about assistive technology. After completing the tutoring sessions, Xuan and his teacher shared their feedback about the learning journey.
From Xuan:
I am very grateful to my teacher for teaching me a lot of knowledge about computer skills, such as browsing the web, using Microsoft Office Word, cloud drives, and YouTube and Facebook. While there were moments when I found these tools challenging and struggled with patience, the guidance and support provided by my teacher enabled me to grasp various computer operations effectively. Undoubtedly, I now find it much more convenient and efficient to gather information independently. If opportunities should arise in the future, I am enthusiastic about continuing my computer learning journey!
From Teacher's words:
Many thanks to TDTB teachers for working hard to understand the needs of students in teaching, and adjust teaching mode according to Xuan’s personality. First of all, Mr. Chen patiently and gently instructed students on using email to send messages, despite the occasional forgetfulness of students. This patient and kind approach has endeared him to the children. Furthermore, he thoughtfully assigns homework that helps reinforce classroom learning. I am truly grateful for Mr. Chen's outstanding dedication and unwavering support.
Additionally, I would like to thank Teacher Alice for her exceptional ability in engaging students and sparking their interest in the subject. Her approach of setting tasks within the time limit strengthened the learning effect of Boshiamy typing technique and greatly boosted Xuan's sense of accomplishment.
Finally, I would like to thank Mr. Lu for accompanying Xuan to junior year graduation and teaching him to use social media enabling him to engage more effectively with his parents, friends, and classmates. I appreciate Mr. Lu's efforts to understand and connect with the younger generation, bridging the gap, and providing valuable insights into their world. Thank you for your commitment and dedication, Mr. Lu.
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We are excited to share our progress in the first quarter of 2023! We began executing the yearly planned projects, including routine annual training courses, volunteer recruitment, fundraising, monthly newsletter publishing, and more to be announced. We believe this year will be very fruitful and rewarding. The results of the first quarter are described as follows:
1. Annual Volunteer Training
As usual, TDTB recruits volunteers to support our activities and audiobook recordings every year. Different from the past, this year we aim to establish a more systematic volunteer team that is divided into three groups, including activity-support, administrative-support, and recording volunteers. After recruiting, we accomplished volunteer training for each group to ensure they are well-acquainted with their roles and responsibilities.
Activity and administrative-support volunteers received training on mobility guidance and image narration. The interaction between volunteers and the visually impaired will foster better mutual understanding. Additionally, recording volunteers received training on recording skills and editing for audiobooks. Given that most of the visually impaired mainly rely on their sense of hearing to obtain information, the quality of audiobooks is vital.
We believe these collective efforts can make a positive impact and create a more inclusive and compassionate society.
2. Meeting outside TDTB office
In order to avoid distractions from daily operations, the TDTB staff held a project meeting in Le Midi Hotel located in Xitou, a beautiful town in middle Taiwan, and the final fiscal report of 2022 was reviewed by the TDTB board of directors.
During the meeting, we updated our financial status, work results, and plans for the upcoming year. During this three-day outing, the spring reception was held to express gratitude to the hard-working team members in an enjoyable atmosphere.
TDTB values the importance of fostering the relationships between the board members and staff through such activities. We believe that by increasing interaction and discussing important issues during these meetings, we can reach a consensus more easily when future proposals require concept exchange and further discussion.
3. General Assembly
The annual general meeting is essential for TDTB members in the early year. On March 29th meeting, we presented the routine reporting, but more importantly, to make our members come together to get to know each other better and work towards the shared objective.
4. Feedback from Tutoring Services Student-Ying
Ying is a special education teacher at an ordinary school and has occasionally taught students with visual impairments in her class. Therefore, Ying decided to take TDTB's one-on-one course.
After completing the course, Ying shared her feedback with us:
As a special education teacher with almost 20 years of experience, I met visually impaired students about once every ten years in ordinary schools. Therefore, I am not unfamiliar with assistive technology for the visually impaired. However, when attending conferences related to visually impaired students in recent years, I usually confused the information provided by itinerant teachers and foundations related to visually impaired education. Motivated by my curiosity, I began learning NVDA (Non-Visual Desktop Access) last year.
The enthusiastic social worker arranged a one-on-one assistive technology course with Mr. Jun Lu. I would like to thank Mr. Lu for introducing practical skills. He not only allowed me to acquire valuable skills but increased my awareness of the obstacles faced by visually impaired students. Many thanks to TDTB for providing such valuable resources so that I could better support my students in advancing their computer skills and meeting their unique needs.
5. Thank you for participating Little by Little fundraising project
TDTB raised USD 1,035 from the "Little by Little" fundraising campaign! Among the 870 organizations that participated in the campaign, we ranked 213th with a total of 14 enthusiastic donors. Since TDTB's established, proactively promoting everyone deserves the same right to obtain information. However, there are still many visually impaired are lack of learning resources. With the continued support of donors and our efforts, we can accompany more visually impaired living independently in an equal society.
Many thanks to all donors and GlobalGiving who contributed to the campaign. Your generosity and kindness have impacted society towards a beautiful difference in the lives of the visually impaired!!
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Thank you for participating in the journey with us in 2022! Your continued support has propelled us throughout the year, empowering us with warmth and motivation to assist more visually impaired people in Taiwan. We served 3,964 members (only the visually impaired), provided 748 hours of teaching, and held 52 activities in 2022.
Now, let’s see what we have done in the fourth quarter.
1. Visually Impaired Digital Mathematics Tool Group Course
For visually impaired students, mathematics is one of the most challenging subjects to learn because it requires applying a large number of formulas to calculate. When we tried to survey mathematics software frequently used by junior and senior high school students, we discovered a mathematics learning tool called A8M developed by National Taiwan Normal University. Therefore, TDTB held a group course based on A8M to assist students in quickly understanding the mathematic questions and formula calculation. After class, the students gave us a lot of feedback:” After learning A8M, I found that it is such a helpful tool. I could quickly calculate the answer now. The course is beneficial and practical!”
2. Vocational Training for Persons with Disabilities
Since July of this year, we have started to hold vocational training for people with disabilities. The goal is to promote employment opportunities for them through systematic computer skills courses. In October, we finally ended the training successfully! A total of 10 students completed it, and 8 people successfully entered the workforce, with an employment rate of 80%.
3. Life Rehabilitation Sharing Event
This season, we specially invited a lecturer who was a baseball player and coach in a visually impaired baseball team to share the experiences of growth and life exploration. He not only set up his fan page but continued to promote the activity - people and visually impaired people travel together. In the sharing event, the lecturer used his life experience as a point of departure and conveyed stories about not giving up on life.
4. New online course on the VIP platform - Introduction of Common Google Online Tools with NVDA
For visually impaired people, Google applications and services are the first choices to apply to their assignment because Google matched web content accessibility with NVDA. Visually impaired could utilize the services joyfully. Besides, Google Drive, Gmail, Google Meet, Classroom, Calendar, Google Form, search engines, and other services are essential tools for employment and education. Therefore, TDTB designed a course including 12 units and created E-books in the DAISY library.
5. Annual Visually Impaired Computer Competition
In the fourth quarter of 2022, we held an annual event - the Visually Impaired Computer Competition. We updated 36 practice questions for contestants on our VIP (Visually Impaired People) E-learning Platform for available contestants to practice beforehand. Over 3,700 users practiced typing and keyword searching on the platform. A total of 19 visually impaired registered for the competition. Under the tight race, one of the winners shared his experience of participating in the competition over the years:
I have participated in TDTB's Visually Impaired Computer Competition four times.
It has been a long process from my unsatisfactory grades to challenging my goals and exploring my abilities simultaneously. All of the experiences laid the growth foundation for me. I want to thank TDTB for their support and recognition, which enabled me to apply assistive technology to acquire information.
The experience made me more clear about my goals and the value of life. Besides, I also learned that as long as I never give up and keep the warmth that society has given me in my mind, and always work hard, I will be able to push the envelope and break through the limitations of the visually impaired one day. Eventually, I could give back to society.
It seems to be a long way to overcome the challenges. However, a few weeks ago, the general secretary accepted my advice to remove the obstacle--stone pillars on the campus. As a representative of disabled students, I feel more obligated to safeguard for public interest and serve others.
In addition, after I visited the dormitory environment at National Taiwan Normal University last week, I expected to contribute my public administration knowledge and power to assist my university in planning the barrier-free dormitory to improve the campus-friendly environment.
Even if countless obstacles need to be overwhelmed; however, once I can help others, I will not forget to express warmth and make society a better place.
In addition to the aforementioned, we held other diverse activities this season, such as a beach cleanup in collaboration with the visually impaired. To cope with global warming in recent years, TDTB cooperated with Industrial Technology Research Institute to do our part for the earth. We also held two cultural experience activities, taking the visually impaired to Taiwan New Cultural Movement Memorial Museum and Yat-Sen Park. Through a one-day cultural tour, they can better understand the living environment and increase interaction between the visually impaired and the general public.
[Summary of the Achievements in 2022]
1. One-on-one computer education
A total of 66 cases took one-on-one computer teaching for 748 hours.
2. Computer group courses
A total of 8 group courses were conducted for 36 hours, benefiting 63 people.
3. One-on-one psychological counseling
A total of 4 individual cases received psychological counseling for 33 hours.
4. Non-visual mobile phone application group class for the elderly
From April to September, a total of 176 members signed up for the course which was separated into five groups, every group divided into 4 classes.
5. Other diverse activities
A total of 52 events, which include cultural experience activities, life rehabilitation sharing events, beach clean-up activities, web content accessibility promotion, and a visually impaired computer competition were held, benefiting 4,155 people (including the visually impaired and the general public).
If you are interested in our service results in 2022, please refer to other quarterly reports:
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Though the COVIC-19 Pandemicbroke out again in late September, TDTB staff has continuously work very hard to provide visually impaired people with various services. Now let’s take a look at our efforts done in the thirdquarter:
1. Tutoring Services
Teaching the visually impaired computer skill is one of our major services. We believe that visually impaired people have the right and ability to obtain information independently. Therefore, we provide various courses, including NVDA screen reader, Microsoft Office software, and Google online tools to enhance their basic computer skills. TDTB provided more than 20 students computer courses in this season, and one student-Wu was invited to share his life-changing experience after learning about computer assistive technology.
Feed Back from Wu:
Thanks to TDTB and the teacher arranged a series of NVDA courses for me. From the beginning course, I learned the hot keys with NVDA and typing on keyboard in correct way. Then, I learned more about Microsoft systems, browsing the website, and word processing. What I have learned in the courses made my computer skills improve rapidly. Now, I can work things out more independently.
2. Web Content Accessibility Promotion
An accessibility environment, we believe where everyone has the same right to use everything and get the information. TDTB has been holding web accessibility promotions with visually impaired computer teachers to universities and NPOs to give lectures for 12 years. This season, we went to three universities, including Private Chang Jung Girls' Senior High School, National Penghu University, and Chiayi Municipal Min-sheng Public Junior High School, so that professors and students understand more about the concept of web accessibility.
3. Corporate Volunteer
Lenovo Technology B.V. Taiwan Branch employee continued devote their time in our recording volunteer program in this year. We arranged a training session before volunteers started to record the books, including recording, eBook layout, and file conversion. In this way, they could better understand the job scope and the value of e-books for visually impaired people. Afterward, we received the final product with high productivity. We can see that the volunteers are full of enthusiasm and great importance. We would like to express our great appreciation to the volunteers’ contributions, TDTB enabled to provide courses, events, and activities for visually impaired people in Taiwan for them to learn to overcome their obstacles.
4. Volunteer training for visually impaired
In August, TDTB held a volunteer training session in Bopiliao Historic Block. It is happy that the volunteers are fully engaged and enthusiastic in the session. In the end, they shared their reflection with us.
“After participating in the session, I defied my traditional impression of visually impaired people. There are a lot of things they could achieve by themselves such as cooking. In addition, I could put myself in their shoes rather than only lend a hand to them,” the volunteer said.
5. Life Rehabilitation Sharing Event
For the visually impaired, positive sentiment and continuous learning is the way to rehabilitate their life. Not only that but peer counseling and accompanying are necessary. Therefore, TDTB hosted a life rehabilitation sharing event, inviting role models in various fields to share their journey from vision loss to faith recovery.The visually impaired teacher encourages the participants to step out their comfort zone. Finally, we are happy to see that all of the participants are fully engaged in the event.
6. List of donations
CHIEN * HUNG
Cybergrants
HUANG * CHUN
Wang * li
Anonymous
Martin * Griffith
Chi *
JONG * HUANG
Nathan *
Chi *
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The epidemic prevention measures in Taiwan experienced the transition from zero-COVID to coexist with the virus. From April to June, the confirmed cases have reached a peak. Live-in family, relatives, and partners around TDTB had Omicron in succession. Therefore, many events have been canceled or postponed one after another. Despite this, TDTB stays positive and never stops our service to assist the visually impaired in coming out of the darkness.
Let’s see what we have done this season.
1. Life Reconstruction Sharing Session
This season, we held two sharing sessions, inviting Jian Fuxuan, who is studying Sports Science at National Taiwan Sport University, and one of TDTB’s teacher-Yuling Pang, as the session lecturer. They shared how to conquer the fear of becoming visually impaired and adapt to a new social environment. We would like to see the visually impaired could be spurred by the stories and find their way eventually.
2. Web Accessibility Promotion
Web accessibility is one of the elements for people with disability to have information equality. TDTB expects the general public could understand that web accessibility design is a prerequisite for disabled people to browse the website. Therefore, we held promotion activities with the cooperation of three universities. They are—the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Chaoyang University of Technology, and Chung Chou University of Science and Technology. Besides, through the conversation with the general public, web designers can take the web accessibility design into account in the future to achieve everyone have the same right to acquire information on the internet.
3. Seven Diversity Group Classes
TDTB held seven group classes this season, including four courses for the elderly-operating mobile phones with non-visual, two online application courses, and an e-book appliance course.
With the increase of age and the ever-changing technology, vision blurred, and degeneration happened rapidly. To reduce the burden on the eyes when the elderly are using electronic products and prevent vision loss, we designed a course to teach them to operate the mobile phone by listening instead.
Word processing is the most common skill in paperwork or presentation. However, this teaching model has become a hindrance and caused the progress of coursework to lag for visually impaired students. Therefore, we taught them Google online tools, Gmail, and reading documents through a screen reader. The online application course is the door to resolving the technical problems and assisting them in keeping up with the schedule.
Since listening is the most important sensory system for the visually impaired, audiobooks and e-books are the primary sources to obtain information. The E-Book instruction course is to teach visually impaired people familiar with exploiting screen readers to listen to e-books and browse e-book websites. Longing for visually impaired people to build up their ability by reading and getting to know more about diverse knowledge.
4. New Column on the Journey of Voice No.57
The Journey of Voice is our quarterly publication. Every season, we invite the visually impaired, volunteer partners, and interns to share their opinion on our activities and related issues. Starting from the no.57 quarterly journal, TDTB will select three featured DAISY audiobooks. Readers could find the resource from our DAISY Library. Welcome to subscribe to our digital journal or read the articles on our website to brighten up your day!
5. Little by Little Fundraising Program
The funding for teaching the visually impaired using computer learning aids islimited. However, the risk of vision loss is unlimited. Thanks to GlobalGiving and all the donors who participated in the fundraising event-Little by Little. Because of your passion, we could serve more visually impaired people. This season, TDTB assisted 52 cases in overcoming the hurdle of psychological shadow and computer skills. Last but not least, they could continue writing their life script.
Links:
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