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Vietnamese School Goes High-Tech to Help Visually Impaired

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BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: In Vietnam, computers and the Internet are playing a central role in some students' educations. Technology is offering something otherwise available to visually-impaired people there.

As CNN's Allison Tom reports, it's a whole new world of reading and music.

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ALLISON TOM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the Bung Sang School in Ho Chi Minh City. The name means flashlight in Vietnamese, and it is becoming a beacon for the visually impaired by using computers and the Internet. The multimedia project allows students to access books, articles and other reading materials they otherwise might never have been able to.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is the Vietnamese for it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Vietnamese (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

TOM: Visually-impaired teachers also are getting training.

PROF. AMADEO PIGNATELLI, BUNG SANG SCHOOL: The objective of the project is to create a group of teachers, so that the teachers will be able to teach others in the community and outside the community to use the computer and access the digital library, which means books that have never been available for the blind in Vietnamese to read.

TOM: The need for materials is huge. Each year, only a dozen or so Vietnamese books are converted into braille. To help increase that number, a braille printer at the school makes a wider selection of reading materials accessible. The project is combined with the school's other main curriculum: music. The school's founder says computers allow students to embrace both their passions and their talents.

Allison Tom, CNN.

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