A two-day seminar on Tamil Computing organised by the Department of Tamil, Presidency College was inaugurated here on Monday.
Titled ‘Tamil Computing Development Scheme’, the seminar follows the distribution of laptops by the Tamil Nadu Government recently. The seminar focused on helping visually impaired students pursuing higher education to effectively use the laptops given to them.
Speaking to City Express, Dr P Mahalingam, Head, Department of Tamil, said, “Generally, visually impaired students know how to use desktop computers. But, this is the first time they have got an opportunity to handle laptops. Since, computer education is mostly in English, it will be hard for the visually impaired students to understand its operations because most of them are from Tamil-medium background. Also, Tamil computing is growing constantly. So we planned to bring all the necessary information about laptops and its usages in Tamil. Through the seminar, we can teach the students to effectively use the software that is specifically designed for the education of the visually impaired”.
Twelve papers would be presented at the seminar, of which nine would be presented by visually impaired Tamil computing scholars.
During the event, a book titled Kanini Kan, penned by Dr R Jayachandran, associate professor, Department of Tamil, Presidency College was released.
Around 50 visually impaired students from seven city colleges would participate in the seminar.