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Australian Story: Mick Curran and Jamie Teh (ABC TV Monday 5 June 2023)

Published

4 months ago

June 5, 2023

Australian Story: Mick Curran and Jamie Teh airs Monday 5 June on ABC TV.

Mick Curran and Jamie Teh became fast friends as kids because they shared a passion for both music and technology.

Their bond deepened, and so did their desire to make the world a better place for people like themselves. Both Mick and Jamie are blind.

The two met at a braille music camp in New South Wales when they were 9 and 10, and they reconnected six years later.

The fact that these two young computer enthusiasts had to shell out so much cash for screen-reading software made them very irritated.

“Why should a blind person have to pay an extra thousand dollars in order to use a computer?” Mick asks.

They decided to make a change by developing and distributing free screen-reading software.

“It was absolutely life changing because it meant that people could suddenly access everything that the internet has to offer, for free”, says Jen Teh, Jamie’s wife.

The software has been localised into 50 languages and is now used by over 275,000 people in over 150 different countries.

While the two may have been able to profit from their invention, they have resisted the urge to market it to the masses.

“There needs to be a free, open-source screen reader for blind people around the world. And we are never, ever going to sacrifice that”, insists Mick Curran.

“Blind people have the capacity to help our own kind. I don’t think we always do need to rely on sighted people.”

Producer: Kristine Taylor

Australian Story airs Monday 5 June 2023 at 8.00pm on ABC TV.

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