INTERNET GIVE THE BLIND AN 'EYE'

TO SCAN THE WORLD

BY: Macon Ramos-Araneta

SURFING the networking sites is normal for the Internet-savvy Filipinos, but very few can claim that they surf the Internet without the need to look at the screen.

Erick Marco Ramos , 27, a senior education student at the Philippine Normal University and a former Fullbright scholar in the United States, uses a software application that translate his keystrokes and mouse clicks into a vocal response.

 

Marco is blind.

“I do whatever you do,” he told me in an interview.

“I also do Facebook. I chat. I surf the Internet and I go out with friends.”

Marco is one of 12 Iris awardees for academic excellence of the Adaptive Technology for the Rehabilitation, Integration and Empowerment of the Visually (ATRIEV) Impaired, the country’s sole computer school for the blind.

He belongs to the more than 4 million Filipinos who are blind based on the latest estimates from the Department of Health.

Despite being blind, Marco was among those who fought to conquer the old cliché that blind people were limited only to massage and music. The story of Marco and his likes inspire others that there is “success beyond limits.”

“But there was the stigma, the social stereotype. That was the time I went through bigger challenges. But I’m happy and thankful to God that I survived those trials,” relates Marco who lost his vision due to Retinopathy of Prematurity during birth.

When asked if he has a girlfriend, Marco said he has one when he was in high school. But after becoming blind, he never had one.

Marco is still a student—the only blind person in his class—but the other Iris awardees are employed in call centers, software development, medical transcriptions and insurance companies.

Marco, who lost vision in his right eye when he was three years old and became totally blind before his 21st birthday in December 21, 2006, says new technology is changing the way we do things in the world and the key is mastering the computer.

“Everything now is computers. Even the school assignments are now encoded,” Marco said.

“Without computers I can’t do my work independently. I can’t scan a book without computers. I do my job through power point presentations.”

Marco says computers, through adaptive technology, give him and the others access to education and help them conquer the old cliche that blind people are limited to massage work and making music.

When I sought Marco for an interview, he was singing an Edwin McCain song, I’ll Be, at the SM Activity Center at the SM Manila during ATRIEV’s awarding ceremony on Saturday, sometime in June (2012).

The audience- and it was a crowd composed mostly of young ‘mall rats’,was enthralled by Marco’s cool voice. But one thing they didn’t notice was that Marco who wasn’t wearing any dark glasses, is blind.

He sat down with me after his performance and appeared eager to answer questions, especially about his studies in the United States.

He submitted his application to the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program of the US Department of State after one of his professors at PNU encouraged him to go because “it would be an excellent experience.”

 

In April 2010 Marco became the first blind scholar of the program, a global competition among applicants from 20 countries in the Western Hemisphere, East Asia and the Pacific regions.

“I went to the University of Indiana in Evansville under the Rhetoric and Composition program of the College of Liberal Arts,” he said.

Marco came out at the top of his class and he led a normal life in the campus.

“I moved around. I lived all alone by myself. I had no tour guide,” he said.

He recalls one of his PNU professors asked him if he’s serious with his plan to get a study-grant abroad. He believed it would be an excellent experience.

Conceding it was a kind of “weird” because of his disability, Marco remembers telling himself and his professor that “It would be fine with him to study abroad.”

So he filed the application forms for the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program funded by the US Department of State.

At the PNU Marco is president of the Debate Society. In February he led his team in the 2012 Manila Inter-varsity Debate Tournament sponsored by the University of the Philippines, where they ranked 15th among more than 60 competitors.

Like Marco, Josefina Guillermo Olorocismo said the knowledge she got from ATRIEV keeps her struggling for life.

Olorocismo, ATRIEV’s chairman of the Board of Trustees, started her welcome remarks by saying that she had the chance to see the event’s guest speaker, Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, before she lost her sight.

“I worked in a TV station, “That’s Entertainment” (the youth-oriented show hosted by German Moreno) was then very popular. And I saw how handsome the vice mayor, now a respected politician,” Olorocismo told me.

It was in 1999 when Olorocismo became blind. She was at the peak of her career. That was also four years after she got married. She woke up one morning seeing nothing but darkness.

“Those were the lowest moment of my life. So I believe in this venue, that there is still life after blindness,” recalls Olorocismo who belonged to the first batch of students of ATRIEV.

“So for those saying that there is no hope for the blind, I say it’s WRONG! There is still hope after blindness,” stressed Oloricismo. She said a blind people can also equal the sighted.

After taking a course on medical transcriptionist offered by ATRIEV, Oloricismo said she now works as a transcriptionist of the Philippine Olympic committee and also the associate editor of their Parish newsletter.

The other IRIS awardees are Rhea Althea Guntalilib, first totally blind software developer; Ma. Criselda Bisda, first totally blind recruitment specialist in a call center; Glen Dimaandal, first low vision SEO manager; Raymond Reyes, low vision Rookie of the Year sales agent awardee of BPI/MS Insurance; Rene Orense and Jesse Gervacio, both low vision call center agents; Irish Ayesa Mendez, academic excellence; Mariecell Fornis, totally blind transcriptionists and virtual secretary; Lourdes Borgonia, totally blind web master; Julius Charles Serrano, web accessibility specialist award and Neil Lumba, most inspiring student. (END)