In Kenya, blind students and those with poor eyesight were still using Braille books for their studies until recently.
肯尼亚盲人学生以及视力不佳者直到最近还在使用盲文书籍来学习。
Their books used the Braille system of raised dots to represent words and numbers. Those with limited or no eyesight can "read" by touching those markings.
他们的书籍使用盲文系统的凸点来代表文字和数字。这些视力受限或看不见的人可以通过触摸这些标记“阅读”。
But Kenyan schools for the blind are now beginning to use technology that provides material in an audible form. This has expanded possibilities for the students and taught them new ways to interact with technology.
不过肯尼亚盲人学校现在开始采用可以提供声音形式材料的技术。这扩大了学生们的可能性，并教给他们新的方法与科技互动。
Seventeen-year-old Lucas Mwanzia is visually impaired. For the past two years, he has been attending computer classes at the Thika School for the Blind.
17岁的卢卡斯·玛瓦西亚（Lucas Mwanzia）是弱视。在过去两年里，他一直在锡卡盲人学校学习电脑课程。
Lucas Mwanzia is in eighth grade. He started school at a later age because of his poor eyesight. But using the new technology, he can search the Internet for biology class. He says the technology has opened doors that once were closed.
玛瓦西亚现在上8年级。因为视力不好他年级较大才上学。但是利用这项新技术，他可以在互联网上搜索生物课。他说，该技术打开了一扇曾被关闭的大门。
He says that Braille books are costly and you have to spend a lot of money to buy one. With computers, he says, the books are available at little or no cost. "So we download the books to read and when are done we just close the program," he says.
他说，盲文书籍非常昂贵，需要花很多钱去购买。他说，有了电脑，这些书籍很便宜甚至免费。“我们下载这些书籍阅读，完成后我们只需关闭该程序。”
The school started using assistive technology six years ago. It enables blind and visually-impaired students to get information from computers and iPads.
该学校六年前开始使用辅助技术。它使得盲人和视障学生能够通过电脑和iPad获得信息。
Zachary Muasya was born blind. He is now one of the school's teachers. He has been teaching the students how to use the technology for about two years now.
扎卡里·穆莎（Zachary Muasya）天生失明。他现在是该学校的一名教师。过去两年他一直在教学生们如何使用这项技术。
He says the technology opens up possibilities that can level the playing field for his students.
他说，该技术为他的学生开辟了创造了人人机会均等局面的可能性。
"Assistive technology equips the learners with very many skills that really make them independent in life," says Muasya. "They can read materials like books, magazines, newspapers by themselves. And apart from that -- assistive technology equips them with employable skills."
穆莎表示，“辅助技术让学习者具备多种技能，这真正使得他们在生活中独立。他们可以自己阅读书籍、杂志、报刊等材料。除此之外，辅助技术还让他们具备就业技能。”
The assistive technology costs $1,000 to set up. But a non-governmental organization called InAble has provided it to the schools at no cost.
这项辅助技术的设立成本为1000美元。但是一家名为InAble的非政府组织免费向该校提供了这项技术。
Peter Okeyo, the program manager at InAble, says blind students using the technology may still face difficulties when they move to higher education.
InAble组织的项目经理彼得·奥凯耶（Peter Okeyo）表示，使用该技术的盲人学生在进入到高等教育时仍然可能面临困难。
He says students who have used the technology up through high school might not have it at the university they attend. Those students might have difficulties if they have to go back to braille, he adds.
他说，使用该项技术一路读完高中的学生在大学里可能没法再使用该技术。他补充说，如果让这些学生重新回去使用盲文可能会面临很多困难。
Four out of Kenya's 11 schools for the blind are using the technology. Inable says it will provide the financing for the remaining schools to join the effort.
肯尼亚11所盲人学校中的4所正在使用该技术。Inable组织表示，该组织将为剩余学校提供资金加入进来。
I'm Mario Ritter.
我是马里奥·理特。(51VOA.COM对本文翻译保留全部权利，未经授权请勿转载，违者必究！)