Microsoft unveils IT tools for the disabled

In a bid to empower the physically challenged with computer education and heighten their employment prospects, Microsoft India Wednesday showcased several IT tools that promise to help the handicapped take to computers.

Be it the magnifying function on the mouse which enlarges a particular area on the computer screen for partially visually impaired people or the narrator which reads out data written on the screen -- the tools were a hit.

'These tools will help us make calculations or presentations or check e-mails making it easier for people like us to understand all the features of a computer,' Mukesh Sharma, a partially blind mobile applications tester, told IANS.

In addition, the company has focused its effort to stimulate local language computing and taking Information Technology (IT) to the masses as 95 percent of Indians use their local language rather than English in their work.

'Today, we need technology that can be accessed by one and all, regardless of any age, ability or language. Here is where Microsoft steps in,' said Gauri Arora, manager - corporate citizenship, Microsoft India.

So far, Microsoft India has completed around 15 sessions with several NGOs to train people with disabilities.

Apart from that, it has collaborated with the state governments of Maharashtra and Gujarat to make their official websites user-friendly for the disabled, the officials said.