Charities Update: New job technology

THE BLIND in Business Trust has recently been founded to raise awareness about technology to help visually impaired people to get or maintain a job. Co- founder Richard Hanson, who is partially sighted and works as a solicitor, says: 'Technology has advanced in leaps and bounds in the last five years but not many people know about it.' Magnified computer screens, screens with synthesized voices, talking calculators and soft braille outputs - a line of braille characters, tucked underneath an ordinary keyboard, worked by moving pins which can be read by touch - are all available. 'We feel that if people are exposed to the right technology at the right time they are in a better position to persuade employers that they are employable. Employers, too, must realise that the problems are not insurmountable,' says Mr Hanson. Blind in Business Trust, 55 Princes Avenue, London N3 2DA, telephone 071-702 2345.