Training the blind in Medical Transcription

Medical Transcription is a challenging profession even for normal person as it requires sufficient insight into the terminol-ogy of healthcare. But here are some visually impaired students who have started their career in Medical Transcription (MT).
These students are undergoing MT training for a period of five months at Software Paradigms Infotech (SPI), Contour Road Unit in Gokulam. There are 11 trainees in a batch and classes are conducted daily from 7 am to 1 pm.
The brainchild behind the project is V. Madhukar, Senior Vice-President of SPI. When he attended a function organised by JSS Polytechnic for Physically Handicapped, he met the visually impaired people and was very much impressed by their talent and computer knowledge. Hence he decided to start the MT training for blind at SPI.
SPI is providing a career opportunity through medical transcription for these visually impaired persons free of cost. After the completion of training, they will be provided jobs at SPI itself.
Before joining SPI, they will undergo 18 months' basic Medical Transcription training with Computer Application which will be undertaken by JSS Polytechnic for Physically Handicapped, the only polytechnic offering medical transcription training to the visually challenged.
"I am very much thankful to SPI for providing such an opportunity to develop our career. Medical Transcription is an ideal career for us as we can work from home also. I put all my efforts to make use of this opportunity. After finishing this course, I want to pursue home transcriptions," says Chennamma, a graduate of Karnatak University, Dharwad.
"I felt happy when I heard about the initiative taken by SPI to provide training for the blind. It’s really a challenging task for us. After training and with experience, we can work from home. It’s very safe also," says B.P. Mohit of Mudigere in Chikkamagalur district.
"I was diffident about my ability to take to this profession, but now I have hope and confidence that I can learn Medical Transcription and opt for this as my career," he added.
"I was afraid, depressed and helpless. But I decided to fight with myself and joined the computer training organisation which trains visually impaired people. I am thankful to the institution which is offering a career opportunities for blind people," says Vishnu.
"MT is an ideal pursuit for the visually challenged as they can work from home and we hope to provide more such opportunities for visually challenged persons," said S. Radhakrishna, Training In-charge, Transcription Services.
"The students here install the JAWS software by themselves, check spellings and correct grammatical errors. It’s really a challenging task to teach," he added.
If more companies emulate the initiative taken by SPI by providing career opportunities to persons with visual handicap, we can build a healthy society without any difference between visually impaired and the normal persons.
Medical Transcription
Medical Transcription, also known as MT, is part of the health profession and deals in the process of transcription or converting voice-recorded reports as dictated by physicians and/or other healthcare professionals, into text format.
About JAWS
JAWS is a computer prog-ramme (software) that works with existing software to read out the content of a screen to the Visually Impaired persons. It enables the blind to access the information displayed on the screen via text-to-speech or by means of a braille display.
It allows the users to create custom scripts using the JAWS Scripting Language, which can alter the amount and type of information which is presented by applications.
[Monday 17th August 2009]