Lawi Obonyo, a happily married father of three daughters, works as a special needs teacher at St. Oda School for the Blind in Siaya County, Kenya. He uses assistive technology to gain access to digital books and educational resources available at the assistive technology lab at St. Oda Primary School for the Blind. inABLE established the lab in 2014.

Teachers at the school were the first to receive training in basic computer skills and coding, and Lawi jumped at the chance to learn Jaws, an introduction to computers, Windows, Microsoft Word and Excel, and how to conduct internet research.

Lawi expanded his training to include iPads and smartphones after becoming familiar with screen readers. He is now able to download accessible training materials thanks to assistive technology.

 In other areas of his life, technology has increased his independence, such as managing his finances on mobile banking apps without the assistance of friends and family. He is also a teacher on the inABLE homeschooling program, which began in 2020 when students were forced to return home due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lawi is extremely proud of his students’ achievements and believes that assistive technology has improved the lives of blind and low vision students. He has witnessed firsthand how having access to assistive computer technology can improve his students’ study methods as well as their results in the recent national KCPE examinations.

“I can confidently say that our students benefit from the inABLE assistive technology lab in a variety of ways,”  says Lawi adding, “They frequently use the lab after class to do independent research and assignments.”

Written by Shadrack Otieno, Computer Instructor, inABLE