I am Jeyeong An. I teach Korean at a middle school in South Korea and am totally blind. Four teachers, including myself, traveled to Taipei, Taiwan from January 13th to 16th. The purpose of this trip was to visit various organizations supporting the visually impaired in Taiwan and indirectly experience the lives of the visually impaired.
At 1:30 PM on January 14th, we visited the Taiwan Digital Talking Books Association (TDTB). We arrived just in time for our appointment, having left our accommodations late. We were starving, having missed lunch, but as we approached the conference room, a delicious aroma wafted through the air. Chicken cutlets and milk tea were placed on our desks. We thanked the staff for their attentiveness, even though it was past lunchtime, and began the meeting.
TDTB is an organization that produces books for the visually impaired. The Daisy format of the books was similar to that of South Korea. So, we discussed the experiences of visually impaired people in both countries regarding information accessibility. If a visually impaired person wants to read a book, they can apply to TDTB and have it produced. The digital accessibility engineers decide which books to produce as alternatives, and I heard they produce bestsellers, recent publications, and award-winning works. Since they don't produce learning materials, university students often rely on their own resources when they need books for their studies.
We also discussed NVDA. TDTB has an NVDA Certified Expert who provides screen reader training to the visually impaired in Taiwan. I believe this certification will be helpful in reviewing website accessibility and improving the accessibility of programs commonly used by visually impaired people. While screen readers are commonly used in Korea, it isn't internationally standardized, which reminded me of the difficulties I experienced when navigating foreign websites. I realized I needed to make an effort to avoid isolation.
I heard that TDTB, with limited government funding, relies on donations from individuals and companies, various revenue-generating businesses, and volunteers to support its operations. Furthermore, the use of AI has reportedly streamlined the book production process by reducing the time it takes to convert text to speech. Whether in Taiwan or South Korea, the lives of visually impaired people are clearly improving. While there are still many shortcomings, I was reassured by the fact that information accessibility is improving in the right direction. I resolved to do my best to bridge the information gap caused by vision in this rapidly changing world.