M Anand, the first visually impaired student to write the state board exams using a computer, scored an impressive 486 marks (out of 600) in the Class 12 exams, the results of which were declared on Thursday, May 8.

Anand, a student of Government Higher Secondary School for the Visually Impaired in Poonamallee, now plans to pursue English literature at Madras Christian College (MCC), aspiring to become a professor.

Writing the exam on a computer gave him the freedom to express himself better, he said. “I was initially worried about the economics paper, as it involves several symbols that are hard to type. Thankfully, I was able to skip them by choosing alternative questions. Overall, with practice, using a computer is much easier than relying on a scribe,” Anand, a native of Sirkazhi, added, according to the report by The New Indian Express.

Before the boards, the School Education Department — based on a government order issued by the Department for the Welfare of the Differently Abled — had announced that Anand would be allowed to write the exams on a computer.

The 17-year-old had been training on computers for the past three years for this.

While students have previously used computers to take CBSE examinations, this was the first time in the state a visually impaired student had used computer for the Tamil Nadu State Board exams.

Anand used NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA), a screen-reading software that enables visually impaired users to navigate and type independently.

A scribe assisted him by reading out the questions, while Anand typed the answers himself.