{"id":10659,"date":"2010-05-29T04:53:48","date_gmt":"2010-05-28T20:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techielobang.com\/blog\/?p=10659"},"modified":"2010-05-29T04:53:48","modified_gmt":"2010-05-28T20:53:48","slug":"infocomm-accessibility-centre-tour-and-tweet-meet-event-video-within","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techielobang.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/29\/infocomm-accessibility-centre-tour-and-tweet-meet-event-video-within\/","title":{"rendered":"Infocomm Accessibility Centre Tour and Tweet Meet Event – Video Within"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was glad to take part in this Infocomm Accessibility Centre (IAC)<\/a> tour. Before this tour, I don’t even know what is IAC or what it does. After this tour, I hope my blog post can help people to understand more about IAC and what it can do to help people with disabilities. And more information on Tweet Meet at the end.<\/p>\n

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The IAC is located at 2 Peng Nguan Street, SPD (Society for the Physically Disabled) Ability Centre.<\/p>\n

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It is a part of Singapore that most people would not have noticed. If not for this tour, I think I will never get to know this place. The bigger picture about the tour is to let the public understand that such place exist and more importantly, to reach out to people with disabilities that they can still upgrade their skills with their conditions. I love their slogan.<\/p>\n

Know Somebody, Grow Somebody!<\/span><\/h1>\n

It is simple yet to the point. If you know somebody with disabilities and you wanted to help, “Grow him” by letting him\/her know\/attend the various courses available (at super affordable rate!).<\/p>\n

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Our first stop is one of the training room. We were greeted by Ms Lee Hui Lin, Asst Director of IAC.<\/p>\n

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She explained to us about the various courses and up and coming event at IAC.<\/p>\n

BTW, the picture on her left are actually students who had successfully found jobs after attending those courses.<\/p>\n

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The focus of the tour is to let as many people as possible to know that there many IT courses available. And the skills learned from these courses can be applied on their future jobs.<\/p>\n

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As you can see (above), Microsoft’s presence in IAC is huge. In fact, many of the courses that were conducted are certified.<\/p>\n

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The IAC was officially launched in 3rd July, 2008.<\/p>\n

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With the help of Microsoft, customers and partners, the Microsoft Unlimited Potential Technology Lab was created.<\/p>\n

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There are many training rooms for various purposes. You can take a look at their IT courses here<\/a>. There is also IT Apprenticeship Programme (ITAP) that can further enhance those skills and increase employment options.<\/p>\n

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Our first stop is to the Video Editing room. In this room, it has many high power Mac computers for students to perform editing jobs. They will learn from video capturing, storyboarding, editing and etc.<\/p>\n

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Here is part of a video clip that they have done together with students.<\/p>\n

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After watching, I have to admit, I could not do such editing. Below is a simple flow chart on what they will\/can learn.<\/p>\n

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Moving along, we went to another training room, Digital Music Room.<\/p>\n

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In this room, students were taught how to make music using software like Cakewalk.<\/p>\n

And in the next room, we learned that students can also learn basic skills like using basic office equipments (scanners, printers) and software like Microsoft Word.<\/p>\n

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They have also bigger area for training like the one shown below.<\/p>\n

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Next, we went to their Specialised Assistive Technology Centre.<\/p>\n

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This centre caters the needs for people that are physical challenged. It helps by assessing them for various on the market products for their daily needs, loaning of devices, modification of existing devices to cater to the needs and of course create awareness through public education efforts.<\/p>\n

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We spent the most time here. Going through those gadgets make me realized that many of us take things for granted. This centre actually helps physically challenged people perform tasks through technology and special enhanced gadgets.<\/p>\n

Look at these keyboards. They are specially made to cater for individual needs.<\/p>\n

High contrast color keyboard.<\/p>\n

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The Pathfinder keyboard that replace alphabets with pictures.<\/p>\n

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This is keyboard that has acrylic on it.<\/p>\n

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The user will need to don a head wear with a pointer in front.<\/p>\n

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He\/she will then use this pointer to key in the letters.<\/p>\n

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These are just part of the “collections”.<\/p>\n

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When someone come to the centre, they will try their best to assess the person to cater to his\/her needs. They can then help to recommend the vendor to purchase the product (they don’t sell products here). Or they can even rent it for a period.<\/p>\n

We tried a few of the gadgets and I must admit, you will need a lot of practice and patience to use them.<\/p>\n

Our first demo is the footmouse.<\/p>\n

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You will wear it on your foot and use it like a mouse.<\/p>\n

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To click the mouse, there is a separate pad.<\/p>\n

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Here is a close up of the scroll wheel.<\/p>\n

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Here is a short demonstration clip.<\/p>\n