Anubhav 2019

Anubhav 2019 was a program designed based on information gathered over June 2018 – August 2019 from the VE school interventions which culminated in design of the 2 days of workshop on various learning activities.

The program mentioned below was conducted with sincere efforts from the team and our partners Enability Foundation, and whole hearted participation from the students of 6th grade of Shri Ramana Maharishi Academy for the Blind (SRMAB) and their teacher, Mrs. Brinda Magesh.

Venue: No.33, 26thA Cross, Geetha Colony, Jayanagar 4th Block, Bengaluru

Day 1
20th September 2019

9:30 – 10:00 Mindfulness
10:00 – 11:00 Reading Tactile Books
11:00 – 11:15 Break
11:15 – 12:30 Art – Drawing/Colouring
12:30 – 1:00 Lunch Break
1:00 – 3:00 Maths Activities
3:00 – 3:15 Break
3:15 – 4:30 Fun Quiz & Games

Day 2
21st September 2019

9:30 – 10:30 Origami
10:30 – 10:4 Break
10:45 – 12:45 Introduction to the Digital medium
12:45 – 1:15 Lunch Break
1:15 – 3:15 Science Activities
3:15 – 3:30 Break
3:30 – 4:30 Feedback and Wrap-Up

We are sincerely grateful to Ms. Gracy from the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped, Chennai for being present on both days of the workshop and to Ms. Anandhi Vishwanathan, President of Rotary Abilities, Bangalore, and Mr. Balaji Varadharajan for donating 10 geometry kits for the students of SRMAB and for contributing towards special drawing paper for all the pilot schools of Vision Empower.

Pragya 2019 Teacher Trainings

Vision Empower organized the Pragya 2019 Teacher Trainings in collaboration with Canara Bank Relief and Welfare Association (Matruchhaya) from 26th June 2019 to 28th June 2019.

Science and Mathematics teachers from 8 special schools for the visually impaired attended the training on directives from the Department for Welfare of Differently Abled and Senior Citizens, Government of Karnataka. 14 of the 16 teachers who attended the training were visually impaired.
Over 3 days the teachers of 4th 5th and 6th standard were introduced to special pedagogic needs of teaching Science and Mathematics following the Karnataka State syllabus to children with visual impairment. In addition to being introduced to the Braille books on Science and Mathematics specially created for the first time, the teachers were provided teaching aids, tactile diagrams, models and methods of experiential learning on two units of each grade. VE will handhold with the schools throughout the year to ensure teachers are provided the support they require.

I for Inclusion

I for Inclusion was organized by Vision Empower for its staff, researchers and volunteers on 20^th May to 22^nd May 2019. The event was intended to create awareness among participants on the realities of visually impaired persons, bust myths about their limitations and provide teachers with the knowledge of the accommodations required to teach them Science and Math. The training was attended by a total of 27 participants spread across various sessions. The trainers were experts, Ms. Neha Trivedi and Ms. Rebecca Maria from the Xavier’s Resource Center for Visually Challenged, Mumbai, who have worked with visually impaired students and their teachers since the 2006. Educational Co-ordinators, technologists and content creators from Vision Empower and its partner organizations attended the training sessions to demystify the world of the blind and visually challenged and learn about the various technologies which exist to help them in their educational journey. Participants were introduced to the XRCVC Special Skill Curriculum Framework, Braille and Nemeth code, Introduction to Geometry and Laboratory skills and experience sharing by XRCVC on their intervention models.

VE is grateful to Dr. Swami Manohar of Microsoft Research for graciously attending the training on 21st May. We thank our guest speaker Shri V . S. Basavaraju, State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, Government of Karnataka, who addressed the gathering on 21st of May and shared his experiences and thoughts on STEM education for the visually impaired students in Karnataka.

This event organized by VE and IIITB was possible with the support from Wipro Technologies.

Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2019

Vision Empower took part in the “Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2019” program arranged at IIIT Bangalore on 15th May 2019. Aditya Manpuria of Vision Empower presented the journey of creation of the Subodha accessible Learning Management System to representatives from various organizations working on advocacy and accessibility solutions.

Conversational Interfaces (Voice, Bots) for Good

RISE (Research and Innovation, Society & Entrepreneurship) Feb 15 2019 intended to showcase IIITB’s focus & contribution across these dimensions. Vision Empower took part in the Roundtable on “Conversational Interfaces (Voice, Bots) for Good”

Pragya : VE Teacher Training Program 2018

Vision Empower conducted its first Teacher training program for Science and Math teachers for the VE-Pilot project between 27th and 29th of June. This addressed the content for the first trimester for fifth standard for the Karnataka State syllabus.

Partners: Matruchhaya – Canara Bank Relief and Welfare Society

ANUBHAV 2018

Vision Empower and Vividha Trust organized Anubhav – a Science and Math summer camp for children of 5th grade for the visually impaired children in Bangalore from 25th March 2018 to 30th March 2018. The camp, attended by 10 students, provided an out of school learning environment to absorb certain concepts of Science and Math through experiential learning. Along with the classroom activities on Science and Math, the camp included fun and games and outdoor activities such as a visit to an animal petting farm.

Supported by: IIIT Bangalore and Wipro Ltd.

I-Stem Hackathon 2018 – Edition 1

I-STEM or Inclusive Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics is a self-advocacy group of individuals with visual impairment, who have chosen to pursue careers in STEM related subjects. On January 20 & 21st 2018, the I-Stem hackathon was held at IIIT BangaIore. It was co-organized by E-Health Research Centre at IIITB, Vision Empower, Vision Aid and Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC). The hackathon highlighted the need to develop awareness in the information technology industry about the necessity to recognize the capabilities of visually impaired programmers and provide the necessary accommodations, so that they may not be denied the opportunity to pursue their chosen occupations.

The twelve hackathon teams comprised of five participants in each team, comprising of two visually impaired programmers, two sighted programmers from the industry and one engineering student from IIIT Bangalore. The twenty five visually impaired participants who came from across the country, are either currently studying at premier institutes such as IITs, NITs, IIITs, NSIT or are working at leading technology companies, government and public sector organizations and other startups. Twenty three sighted engineers from eleven companies including Deutsche Bank, Honeywell, Juniper Networks, Microsoft, Mindtree, Oracle, Salesforce, Sasken, TCS, Uber and Wipro participated in the event.

Prof. S. Sadagopan(Director, IIIT Bangalore), Mr. Ajay Seth, IAS (Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Dept., Govt. of Karnataka), Dr. Y.S. Rajan (Honorary Distinguished Professor, Indian Space Research Organization) and Dr. Chieko Asakawa (IBM Fellow) shared their perspectives at the inaugural event.

A panel discussion on “Disability and the Tech Industry: Employment and Product Perspectives” was organized in which representatives of corporate HR practices and Inclusiveness were invited to share their thoughts on the demands and practices in the industry and the necessity of creating inclusive workplaces. The honorable panelists were Mr. Ankit Rajiv Jindal, Dell/Friends for Inclusion, Mr. Karthik Padmanabhan (Google), Ms. Meenu Bhambhani (Mphasis), Mr. P. Rajasekharan (V-Shesh), Mr. Rakesh Paladugula (Adobe Systems/Maxability), Ms. Sonia Sahgal (Microsoft), and Ms. Vidya Rao (Wipro).

Besides informal networking and exchange of ideas between the organizing partners of the event, the hackathon provided a forum for students, academicians and industry practitioners to confer about the challenges faced by the visually impaired in society, and suggest ways to promote STEM education among them. Recruiting managers from several firms joined on both days to interact with the budding engineers and others who are already employed, to understand their needs, capabilities and potential, and to equip themselves to take the first steps in providing for an inclusive workspace. Several visually impaired participants received interview requests during or soon after the event.

The twelve teams presented their creations to the panel of judges comprising of Prof. T K Srikanth, Professor & Faculty-in-charge Computing, IIITB, Mr. George who leads the Economic and Technology Inclusion and Accessibility initiatives at Enable India and Mr. Srinivasu Chakravarthula, Lead Accessibility Consultant, IAAP – International Association of Accessibility Professionals.

Winning teams:

First prize: Rishabh Jain (IIT Roorkee), Rutwik Ravi Teja Vempati (IIT Madras), Aman Datta (Honeywell), Ramakrishna Kulkarni (Wipro), Mayank Senani (IIIT Bangalore) : A product using computer vision and NLP to identify objects in an image, determine relationship between them and return a description of this relationship.

Second prize: Manjot Singh (DPS Gurgaon), Harsha HD (Bangalore University), Abhijit Dasgupta (Honeywell), Sai Krishna (Juniper Networks), Mohammad Khalid (IIIT Bangalore) : A novel inclusive game of snakes and ladders with Harry Potter.

Third prize: Team 4-Kartik Sawhney (Stanford University), Abhishek Agarwal (Securities and Exchange Board of India), Sidharth Raja (Uber), Shashidhar Gurumurthy (Salesforce), Tarun pandey (IIIT Bangalore) : A product for currency identification for the blind which is especially useful after demonetization, since the identifying features to distinguish currency by the blind are no longer available.