IIT Delhi Alumnus Develops App for Visually Impaired

Ankita Gulati, who is an IIT Delhi Alumnus received National Disability Award for working professionals for creating a device for the visually-impaired person. The device is named as TouchVision. This device is capable of narrating the content in the picture when a visually-impaired person touches it.

The award ceremony was held on 14th August at the India International Centre in New Delhi. It was the 10th edition of the NCPEDP-Mphasis Universal Design Awards. The ceremony was preceded by Ms. Rama Devi, Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha. While addressing the audience she said that we needed a technology which helps the person with disabilities to be independent.

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Ankita, the winner of the National Disability Award build an assistive technology for her master’s thesis. She explained the working of the device. She said that to position the smartphone camera, a foldable stand is used. The camera then scans the tactile material and the pointer ring reads the text. The smartphone through the app provides audio to the user as per the location of the index finger. The description is narrated as the user touches different sections of the picture.

The gathering was addressed by Arman Ali, Executive Director of NCPEDP. He said that Without accessibility, inclusion is impossible. He also said that the innovation that has received the award this year gives a better hope for the future and small towns and districts should also get the message that accessibility is beyond just building a ramp.

Nipun OS, AVP Corp Social Responsibility of Mphasis said that innovations must be scaled up so that more people with disabilities can benefit from it.

A total of 14 awards were given at the ceremony. Aneesh Karma of BETiC IIT Bombay, Nekram Upadhyay from New Delhi and Rajesh Ketkar from Vadodara, Gujarat were given persons with a disability award.

Rajni Kant Singh of LEPRA Society-Bihar, Prashant Gade of Inali Foundation- Madhya Pradesh Kunal Prasaad of the XL Cinema Mumbai and Ankita Gulati of IIT Delhi received awards for working professionals.

Ms. Smitha Santhakumari Sadasivan received the Javed Abidi Public Policy Award.Ms. Smitha has been engaged with Election Commission of India in the electoral process for all citizens with disabilities to have access to the voting system, collaborating with Public Works Department (PWD), etc.

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting received special jury award to make people with hearing disabilities access the television.

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The awards for corporations were awarded to:

• Bleetech Pvt Ltd (Mumbai, Maharashtra)
• SM Learning Skills Academy for Special Needs Private Limited (Gurgaon, Haryana)
• National Institute of Open Schooling (Noida), Big Bazaar- Future Retail Mumbai, Maharashtra
• Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Private Limited, (Bengaluru, Karnataka)

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