About Us

What is the British Computer Association of the Blind (BCAB)?

BCAB is an organisation of visually impaired people who use Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Our members range from experienced computer professionals to people who are beginning to explore the use of Information and Communications Technology for leisure, study or employment.

BCAB is a charity, based in the UK, but with the advent of global networks, is developing ever closer links with people and organisations worldwide.

What do we do?

BCAB works on a number of projects and goals, including:

Get actively involved in enabling visually impaired people to access and use information communication technologies;
Organise specialised training;
Campaign vigorously to ensure that blind people gain equal access to information and communication technologies;
Provide a focus for the use of ICT by blind and partially sighted computer users;
Publish a newsletter and a regular members' CD;
Support an active email list which serves as a powerful vehicle for infromation sharing and networking.

Membership

The membership of BCAB includes many different people:

People using ICT at home, school and college;
Students of ICT and other areas;
People in diverse jobs using ICT in the course of their work;
Computer programmers who use both large and small computer systems;
Database Administrators, university lecturers and systems analysts;
Researchers studying access methods for visually impaired people.

With such a range of members using various types of speech, Braille displays or screen magnification to operate a wide range of commercially available software on different computer systems, as well as the emerging digital technology used for broadcasting and in all areas of daily living, the membership of BCAB has a great variety and depth of experience. Thus, BCAB's major assets are the know-how, skills and experience of its membership.

If, as a visually impaired person, you have a problem with technology, someone in BCAB will probably be able to help you, or at least know somebody who can!

Aims and objectives

The main aim of BCAB is to promote the use of ICT by visually impaired people in education, employment and the home. To this end BCAB keeps abreast of the latest developments in technology and identifies its relevance and appropriate usage for visually impaired people.

To do this BCAB works to locate new sources of information, holds discussions with international software developers about the impact of their products and establishes contacts amongst companies and researchers working to provide specialised publications, systems and equipment in the UK, Europe and worldwide.

BCAB is actively involved, on its own and with other organisations of and for visually impaired people in issues which affect visually impaired computer users. For example:

Funding for adaptive equipment in work;
Access to information in suitable formats;
The provision of appropriate training.

Joining BCAB