Ang Dabawenyo

Attending the launch of MTC Academy’s Basic Medical Transcription for High School program today, I met a young woman who, despite her visual impairment, was going to enroll at MTC to become a medical transcriptionist. Honey Paula is totally blind, and yet she uses the computer as well as any sighted person. According to Dr. Jaime Haw Jr., head faculty of MTC, who has overseen Honey’s practical tests, she actually performs a lot better than expected. (Incidentally, Jim Haw is a blogger — check this out!)

Meeting this strong-spirited person was very heartening for me, and tremendously inspiring. If a visually-challenged person such as Honey could hold her own and even compete with so-called "normal" people, how much more for someone who had the same skills plus vision?

Honey credits her capabilities to an NGO called Resources for the Blind Inc. RBI, located at Rm48, Central Plaza I (in front of Gaisano Mall), provides free computer training to the visually-impaired. Honey says that the software that they use is called JAWS, or Job Access With Speech, from FreedomScientific. If more and more Davaoeño students emulate the determination and perseverance of the likes of Honey, then we wouldn’t have to worry about any shortage of intellectual manpower in the future.

And speaking of students, find out more about the annual nationwide school fair. Join the Philippine Schools Cyberfair 2007: Empower and Unite! Students who wish to participate may still join if they finish their website on or before 28 February! That’s more than enough time to come up with a smashing web presence, if you ask me.