First totally
blind computer engineer graduates in Cuba
BY ILEANA MEDINA
AMARO— Granma daily staff writer—
HAVANA, June 15.—"An accessible web: a need for
people with disabilities" is the title of the thesis
with which Roberto Pérez de Paz, a totally blind
Cuban student, today became the first computer
engineering graduate on the island with that kind of
limitation.
The diploma work presented by this likewise
member of the National Association of the Blind
opens a new dimension in Cuba in an analysis of the
use of digital sites, given that it proposes the
introduction of an approach to a universal design.
Extending the use of new information technology
to the blind or visually impaired by breaking down
cybernetic barriers, such as the indiscriminate use
of settings or the absence of any description of
useful actions on digital pages is another proposal
of this study.
At his graduation this Thursday, Roberto Pérez de
Paz, who did his five-year undergraduate course at
the José Antonio Echeverría Higher Polytechnic
Institute, affirmed that giving a veritable social
use to these innovative techniques was the central
objective of his research.
For this analysis he consulted a wide up-to-date
bibliography and interviewed Cuban disabled users of
national webs, which brought to light their total
inaccessibility to existing formats. Another
deficiency his research threw up was that the Cuban
associations for persons with physical or hearing
disabilities do not have digital pages, because the
only techniques in the country for the use of these
persons are sound-based screen readers and screen
amplifiers (an increase in the size of the image).
Cuba’s connection to the Internet 10 years ago
opened up wide possibilities in society for the
understanding and participation of all populational
sectors; principally, the reinsertion of individuals
with any of those disabilities.
