ConVerTIC — Colombia's Free National Screen-Reader and Magnifier Licensing Program

ConVerTIC is a program of Colombia's Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications (MinTIC) that gives people with visual disabilities free, unlimited access to two commercial assistive-technology tools: the JAWS screen reader, which converts on-screen text to speech, and the ZoomText magnifier, which enlarges and adjusts the contrast of on-screen content up to 16 times. Licences are downloaded from a government portal and work offline on Windows PCs after installation, alongside manuals and video tutorials.
Launched in late 2013, the program reported around 100,000 downloads within its first six months, against Colombia's estimated 1.2 million people with visual disabilities at the time. By the mid-2020s, MinTIC and the independent broadcaster Radio Nacional de Colombia both reported that ConVerTIC had reached more than 1,060,000 beneficiaries nationwide, describing it as one of the first initiatives of its kind in Latin America.
The reported figures are cumulative downloads and licence activations self-published by MinTIC rather than results of an independent outcome evaluation, so they measure software reach rather than verified gains in employment, education or independence. The program is also Windows-only and depends on continued government funding, which limits it for users on other operating systems or without a compatible PC.

Read the full analysis: https://www.convertic.gov.co