ASSISTANT Professor Wong Meng Ee reads using a scanner.
Dr Wong, 39, who is blind, reads a book by zapping it into a computer – page by page – with a flatbed scanner.
A software – OpenBook – converts the scanned image into words. The words are then read in an artificial-sounding voice to him. The scanner and OpenBook act as his eyes for books, which he relies on for his research and lecture preparation.
Another software, Jaws, is a screen reader. It reads out what is on the laptop screen -- like his e-mail messages and Word documents.
With such technology aids – called assistive technology (AT) – Meng Ee is able to teach students in diploma, masters and post-graduate courses at the National Institute of Education.
But AT helps don’t come cheap.
OpenBook costs US$995 ($1,393). Jaws starts from US$895 ($1,253).
The cheapest Pac Mate, a personal digital assistant (PDA) with a Qwerty keyboard, is a stiff US$2,395 ($3,353) – more than the price of a high-end laptop.
Meng Ee uses a Pac Mate QX for taking notes at meetings. Looking like a bloated keyboard, the PDA, which runs the mobile versions of Microsoft Office, has Jaws built in too.
Relief is available.
The Assistive Technology Fund (ATF) subsidises up up to $10,000, the purchases of aids like PDAs and screen reader software. The aim is to let people with disabilities cope with mainstream schools or jobs.
But tech gear can help only so far.
Watching Meng Ee stand over his scanner as he showed me how he "reads" one page of a book, I realised how tough it was for him to do a task that I take for granted.
Scan. Convert. Listen.
The three-step routine is for pristine print.
Underlined phrase or a highlighted paragraph will confuse the software. Graphs and diagrams are out. So are tables unless they are simple ones. For these, he turns to someone who has sight.
Meng Ee enjoys jazz. But if I were to pick a soundtrack that reflects his indomitable spirit, On Earth As It Is In Heaven – a track from the 1986 movie The Mission – comes to mind.
The Ennio Morricone composition starts quietly with a choir in sotto voce then builds up gradually but relentlessly into a thundering climax.
Like that composition, nothing in Meng Ee - apart from his firm handshake - revealed his resolve when I first met him. But as he described how he copes with his work, I came to realise the strength of his tenacity.
Kudos to you, Meng Ee.
For more information on the Assistive Technology Fund (ATF), call the Centre for Enabled Living at (65) 6593 6437.