In a first, 100% blind student answers Goa board’s SSC exam without writer

PANAJI: For the first time, a 100% visually impaired (blind) student has answered the Goa Board’s Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examination on a computer without the assistance of a writer or scribe.
Fifteen-year-old Saish Gauthankar, a student from the National Association for the Blind (NAB) Goa, studying at Santa Cruz High School, has achieved a significant milestone by completing his exam without having to dictate his answers to a scribe.
The Pomburpa-based lad received extensive computer training at NAB, enabling him to achieve this feat.
Traditionally, NAB students relied on scribes and faced several challenges in finding such assistants ahead of the exams. The association, however, embraced digital literacy in 2020 and ushered in accessibility and independence for the visually impaired.
Saish said he answered his exams with the help of a laptop, speaker, printer and a reader.
“The reader would read the question paper to me and I would type out the answers. The screen reader software on the computer would read out the answers I typed,” he said.
The Santa Cruz High School student said that he studied till 9pm every night for his board exams.
His aim is to pursue Class XI and XII, after which he will decide what to do in the future, he said.
“I was happy to answer the exam myself,” Saish, who enjoys singing and playing the harmonium and tabla, said.
Former computer teacher and NAB council member, Mahadev Sawant, who proposed that the Goa Board introduce an inclusive and computerised exam, said computer training is being imparted to visually impaired students at the association to make them independent and give them confidence to answer their exams on their own.
“If they continue to rely on writers, what will they do when they pursue higher studies and get employed? NAB trains them to be self-sufficient,” Sawant said.
In 2022, TOI had reported that efforts were on at NAB to train students to answer exams without a writer and that the Goa Board had given the green signal.
NAB partnered with the largest online library, Bookshare, which caters to people with disabilities, and is conducting a digital literacy programme for students.