A different view of CERN
Rania Python is twenty-five years old and in the second year of her Master's Degree at Geneva University's School of Translation and Interpreting (ETI); she arrived at CERN on 16 August to start a two-month placement in the Translation and Minutes Service. Nothing remarkable about that, you might say…until you find out that she's blind.
Rania brought all these devices with her to CERN so that she could get straight to work on the first day of her placement. Among various texts she translated from English into French during her first week, Rania was responsible for the French versions of several articles for the Bulletin ("The Rainbow School of Physics" and "A Garden of Possibilities"). She can also translate from Italian into French.
Rania and her parents had to fight hard for her to follow a conventional academic path. "I went to a special school for the visually impaired for a year-and-a-half. Even though this kind of school is specially structured for the blind, it was a very bad experience for me because the working methods just didn't suit me. My parents and I did everything we could to get me back into my old school with my old friends," she explains.
But daily life throws up many obstacles to test a blind person's mettle, like road works or simply an object out of place. In CERN's labyrinthine corridors, it's easy to imagine the challenges Rania must face - simply to find her way to her office. "The slightest change can completely throw us off course and it takes ages to find our bearings again. For example, it's easy to get lost at CERN, and all the refurbishment work currently going on doesn't make life any easier. Thankfully I always have someone with me, so I feel quite safe," Rania explains.
What's more, Rania has a faithful friend to help her through the trials of everyday life – her guide-dog Jenny, who accompanies her wherever she goes. The complicity between mistress and dog is total, to the point where Rania doesn't need a cane and can rely entirely on Jenny, who alerts her to the slightest obstacle.
The placement at CERN is very important for Rania as it's her first professional experience. It can often be an uphill struggle for the visually impaired to get training or find a job. "I've done some free-lance work in the past, but this placement at CERN has introduced me to office life and given me a proper start in my chosen profession. It's a really great experience in both professional and human terms," she confirms.
The day after she arrived, Rania visited SM18, where she took time to touch and feel everything in her path, especially the mock-up of the LHC tunnel. "With my sense of touch I can get a good picture of my surroundings. The visit was fantastic and next time I hear about the LHC magnets I'll have a good idea of what they are," she concludes.
Rania's dream is to become a conference interpreter, and she will shortly be taking the entrance tests. We wish her a long and successful career.
| The Translation and Minutes Group The Translation and Minutes (TM) Group comprises four French mother-tongue and four English mother-tongue translators. Their role is to translate official CERN documents to and from the Organization's two working languages, French and English, and occasionally from German and other European languages. The Group is also responsible for writing the minutes for official meetings of CERN's governing bodies (Council, FC, SPC, TREF etc.). Every year, in the framework of the administrative students' programme, TM plays host to three French-mother-tongue student translators from ETI in Geneva and ESIT in Paris. The publication of the CERN Bulletin in two languages is only possible thanks to the members of the TM Group, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank them all ! For more information on the Translation and minutes Service, click here ici. |
| Braille (source: Wikipedia) Braille is a tactile writing system using raised dots, named after its French inventor, Louis Braille (1809-1852), who lost his sight after an accident. Voice synthesis, refreshable braille display, character recognition Voice synthesis is yet another field where technology has made great strides. Not so long ago, blind people were alone in being able to decipher sentences pronounced by reading software. Now it can be understood by everyone and punctuation is clearly audible. Reading software converts text on screen into a page of braille or the spoken word. Then comes the refreshable braille display, a keyboard-like pad comprising a succession of rectangles on which six dots rise and fall to form braille characters. This is how a line of text displayed on the screen is converted into braille on the display. The refreshable braille display is also called a braille terminal. Blind people can read text from the computer screen using two scroll modes on the braille terminal: either by pressing a button once the end of the line is reached to scroll on to the next line, or by allowing the text to scroll automatically at a given speed. Blind people should soon be able to consult diagrams on their computers using the Hyperbraille interface. The full Wikipedia page is available ici. |
