Internet for the Disabled Community: The Singapore Experience

Found this undated article hosted on the Internet Society (ISOC) website, titled “Internet for the Disabled Community: The Singapore Experience“.

I wonder when this article was written. After a little detective work, I’m pretty sure it was published in 1996:

• The article URL is www.isoc.org/inet96/proceedings/g3/g3_3.htm, where the “inet96″ subdirectory probably means a conference or event held in 1996.
• I verified this with this search result from Google (search string: “The Singapore Experience” site:http://www.isoc.org/isoc). The search retrieved an article titled “SchoolNet: A Catalyst for Transforming Education in Ghana” from the “INET ‘95 Proceedings, Volume 1, pp. 293-297″. This article URL had a sub-directory name “inet/96″.
• At the end of the “Internet for the Disabled Community: The Singapore Experience” article, under the “authors” section, the latest date mentioned was 1996 (see entry for Mr Eugene Soh).

Or I could just emailed the listed contact, Dr. Tan Wee Tin. But this is more fun

Abstract

Internet technologies reduce the barrier between people labeled as “disabled” and the majority of the population. On the network, being blind or deaf or unable to walk constitutes no major impediment. Using the Internet, intra-disability and cross-disability communications can also be enhanced.

Beginning with the hearing impaired community in Singapore, we have set up Internet-connected computer networks for the disabled community since 1994. The Singapore School for the Deaf (SSD), a primary school and kindergarten, was first to have two computer clusters connected to the Internet (http://www.dpa.org.sg/SSD). Courses were held for SSD school teachers and training was given on how to build their Web pages. In addition, introductory lessons were given to the pupils. For the first time, hearing impaired children can communicate with each other directly using Internet Relay Chat, Unix talk and email. Teachers began to conduct regular enrichment sessions for these children, and supervised their surfing of the Internet. Today, learning the use of the Internet has become part of the curriculum at the school.

From 1994 to 1995, the Singapore Association for the Deaf (SAD) set up two computer clusters to access the Internet, one for the administrative staff and one for hearing impaired members, particularly the young people. We conducted Internet lessons on a regular basis, with one computer cluster opened in the evenings for users to upgrade their computer and network literacy (http://www.dpa.org.sg/SAD).

For the wheel-chair bound, we were able to conduct talks to introduce Internet technology, and recently, their association, the Handicaps Welfare Association (HWA) set up their Computer Centre on their own initiative. Soon Internet surfing for them will be a regular feature that transcends physical mobility.

In the near future, we hope to obtain funding to introduce speech synthesizer technology to the visually handicapped at the Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped (SAVH) (http://www.dpa.org.sg/SAVH). Hopefully this will supplement the network planned for the Braille Production Unit at the SAVH, which produces Braille textbooks for blind children attending the School for the Blind in an adjacent compound. It will introduce to the children the vast electronic library of books and information online by providing Braille texts and books on demand, while introducing them to computer technology at the same time.

At a higher level, the Disabled People’s Association (DPA), an umbrella organization for people with various disabilities, set up an information resource called EnableNet (http://www.dpa.org.sg) in 1994. Phase II of the project at the moment attempts to provide Internet access via a subsidized scheme to qualifying members through a generous donation by a local Internet service provider. For those who are beginning to be trained in Internet and computing technology, we hope that new job opportunities will arise. In fact, Bizlink, a government-sponsored employment placement agency for disabled people has been using the WWW (http://bizlink.org.sg/bizlink) to assist in their job placement.

Presently, we are gathering momentum in this effort to bring IT to the disabled by getting volunteers from all walks of life to form a virtual committee, the Enable2000 IT committee. With six Working Groups, it will accelerate our efforts of helping targeted volunteer institutions and organizations of the various disability groups to computerize and to “Internetize” in a concerted manner. We hope that it will also encourage other disability organizations to independently evolve their IT and Internetization plans.

With this bird’s eye view of the progress of Internet access for these communities, we hope that our national vision of the Singaporean IT2000 master-plan will create an “intelligent island” that will not leave behind a group of information have-nots in the wake of a rapidly progressing and technologically sophisticated society (http://www.dpa.org.sg).

Full article here.

---

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• WORLDBEAT - Training class brings hope in Singapore
• “The Internet should not be a Babysitter”
• :article: The Potential Impact of the Internet on Children
• A few words on the past, present, and future of the machine.