You can use ALTER SESSION statements to set comparison to case-insensitive. See this FAQ.
alter session set NLS_COMP=ANSI;
alter session set NLS_SORT=BINARY_CI;
For all those visiting 8 years after this original answer has been accepted (for 10gR2):
After 10gR2, the NLS_COMP
setting must be `LINGUISTIC':
ALTER SESSION SET NLS_COMP=LINGUISTIC;