BPO company amazed at transcription skills of blind men

Aditya is excited. He has finished his six-month training course in medical transcription in just four months and will be joining his new job soon. There are many more like him waiting to finish the training course and join the job.

What began as a goodwill gesture has left the IT-enabled services BPO company Transtek, stunned at the skills of the young men of Ramkrishna Mission Blind Boys' Academy, Narendrapur. A few months ago, Transtek, which does medical transcription work for doctors in the US, approached the Narendrapur academy to train some of its students.

"It involves listening to tapes of dictation by doctors of interaction with their patients and typing them out. We had heard that in the US, visually impaired people were doing transcription, so we decided to try it here, too," explained Sudarshan Bagri, Managing Director, Transtek.

The training was provided free to six boys on theNarendrapur campus. Initial doubts of both teachers and students were soon erased. "They are just too good. Their skills are no less than a sighted person," stated trainer Archan Haldar. A doctor also took classes once a week, to teach the students about the human body since a general idea is required.

There were hurdles, of course – such as complicated medical terms, American accents and learning about the human body without being able to see the diagrams – but the boys were confident of crossing those hurdles.

“We want to continue this project but with corporate sponsorships in future to cover the costs," said Bagri.