(This Image shows happy Volunteers posing for a picture after making tactile boards for the students) On 4th December 2024, VE organized a successful Ananda volunteering event at CSGI, Pune, with 88 employees, including the leadership team, coming together to make a meaningful impact. The volunteers worked in teams to...
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Anubhav, The Experiential Learning event for Students in Special Schools for the Blind, Odisha took place throughout November 2024, covering various locations and topics for students in special schools for the blind. Here’s the Gist, Across all events, Subodha Sessions featured quizzes on covered topics, and DL Episodes (like Episode...
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The Curious Minds 2024 event organized by Vividha Trust in partnership with Vision Empower, Raised Lined Foundation and Curiouscity on November 23rd and 24th at ACTS Secondary School ICSE, Pragathi Nagar, Electronics City, Bengaluru was a commendable effort in getting visually impaired (VI) students and their teachers excited and curious about Science and Maths.
VE celebrated Children’s Day with over 1500 students, across various schools all across India. In celebration of Children’s Day, Vision Empower (VE) spread joy and smiles by gifting chocolates to all the children, creating a sweet moment of happiness and reinforcing the importance of nurturing young minds with love and...
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This image shows the VE team and all the teachers from across Tamil Nadu, who came to attend the teachers’ training stand together in a group while posing for a photo Vision Empower (VE) organized the Pragya workshop for Tamil Nadu teachers on November 11 & 12, 2024, at the...
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Vision Empower (VE) organized a 3-day training workshop at NAB Bangalore on October 23rd to 25th, for 37 teachers from 24 special schools for the blind across Karnataka, with approval from the Department for the Empowerment of the Disability and Senior Citizens (DWDSC). The workshop aimed to equip teachers with...
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Vision Empower recently participated in Empower 2024, held from October 17-19 at the National Institute of Speech & Hearing (NISH) in Thiruvananthapuram. This dynamic event brought together users, experts, innovators, and advocates in Assistive Technology, fostering an environment ripe for collaboration and empowerment. On Day 2, our Co-Founder, Vidhya Y,...
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Vision Empower has been awarded as the Winner at the prestigious Doing Good for Bharat Awards hosted by CSR Box at the India CSR and ESG Summit on Wednesday, 16th October 2024 in New Delhi, for its outstanding accomplishment in the the category “Doing Good through Grassroot Actions for Education”....
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As Vision Empower turns seven, we proudly celebrate the dedication of our team and the generous support of our funders and partners. We also honor the cooperative spirit of the schools we serve and the invaluable guidance of our mentors. To mark this special occasion, we organized volunteer events across...
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On September 25th and 26th, the Pragya Teacher Training program was successfully held in West Bengal, organized in collaboration with the Department of Mass Education Extension & Library Sciences at RKM Blind Boys Academy. The event saw participation from 30 dedicated teachers representing 16 schools across the region, all eager...
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This image shows VE teachers and the other teachers of Odisha who take part in the Pragya session standing for a picture On September 10th and 11th, VE, in collaboration with the Social Security & Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Department of the Government of Odisha, proudly hosted ‘Pragya,’ an...
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On 22nd August, our Founder Vidhya was invited to the Hope Series discussion at Microsoft to be a chief guest. Microsoft invites prominent change making NGO leaders to have a discussion on their journey of impacting lives. The discussion was received with a lot of love from the 250 Microsoft...
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“ I thought we were playing, but now I realise that we learned many new things.” – Barsha rani Nayak, Student. VE in collaboration with the Social Security & Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Department, Government of Odisha, conducted a two-day Anubhav Experiential STEM learning event for students with Visual...
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When a vision is presented to the world, the ideology becomes more real and surreal. The VE team participated in the 6th Conference on Computational Thinking in Schools (CTiS 2024) conference conducted on the 5th and 6th of July 2024 at IISER, Pune which was hosted by GGIS School, Pune...
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On May 28th, 2024, Vision Empower (VE) participated in the National Workshop on User Interface and User Experience for Government, hosted by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in New Delhi. The event featured exhibitors like Oracle, Samsung, MapmyIndia, and SBI, alongside Microsoft, with each showcasing solutions in...
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On May 16, 2024, Vision Empower hosted a panel discussion on ‘STEM Accessibility in the Indian Education System, to mark the 13th Global Accessibility Awareness Day. The event brought together Kartik Sawhney, Pulkit Sparsh, Paul D’Souza, and Chandrashekhar Korlahalli—experts dedicated to making STEM education accessible in the Indian education system...
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On May 9th and 10th, 2024, ICFOSS (International Centre for Free and Open Source Solutions) orchestrated a significant workshop at Shikshak Sadan, Thampanoor, aimed at the assessment of the adaptive learning devices developed by ICFOSS for visually challenged students. The event drew together a diverse array of experts, educators and...
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On 9th May 2024, at the Ideal Beach Resort on ECR Road, Chennai afternoon, twelve volunteers from our supporter organisation Cognizant Foundation participated in a volunteering workshop to create tactile aids that would be used by children with visual impairment in understanding STEM concepts. The event began with an introduction to Vision...
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On 7th May 2024, Vision Empower organised a successful two-hour volunteering event with 29 volunteers from Wipro at IIIT Bangalore. During the event, the volunteers assisted in creating Science Tactile diagrams that will be used for the IRIS-Audio Label reader pilot program. The tactile diagrams were designed to be attractive...
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On 22nd April 2024, Vision Empower conducted a Pragya Teacher Training at Alagappa University’s Department of Special Education in Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu. 80 students who are currently pursuing B.Ed. and M.Ed. degrees in Special Education participated in the workshop aimed to enhance the teaching skills and knowledge of these pre-service...
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Vision Empower celebrated National Science Day 2024, from 21st to 28th March 2024 at 34 special schools across 10 states in India. The week-long celebration was a great success. This book captures the essence of Science Day showcasing the incredible achievements of our little Einsteins who created tactile and accessible science models, brought...
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On March 22, 2024, Jyoti Bisht, our Regional Manager- North, represented Vision Empower at the one-day orientation programme hosted by Samagra Shiksha Uttarakhand in Nainital. The event aimed to raise awareness of the educational requirements of children with special needs. 13 students alongside 170 principals, teachers, parents, and coordinators participated in...
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On March 20, 2024, the students of NKT College of Education in Chennai participated in a unique activity aimed at creating tactile learning boards. The task at hand was to craft two types of tactile: a world map with latitude and longitude, and a world physical map. These tactile creations...
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VE co-founder Supriya Dey represented Vision Empower in a panel discussion on Inclusive Education organised by Azim Premji University as a part of their course on Schools as Organizations. The panel comprised of Mr. Mallikarjuna, Director of Association of People with Disabilities and Ms. Chitra Seshadri, Founder of Farmhill Education...
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On March 13th, 2024, 46 employees at the CSGI corporate office in Bengaluru, Karnataka, volunteered to create tactile game boards from 2:30 to 4:30 pm. The event began with a brief introduction to Vision Empower. Then, an icebreaker game was played, and a video was screened featuring Vision Empower’s journey...
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Last week Vision Empower had the privilege of participating in an event and demonstrate our work to Microsoft’s distinguished Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs leaders for Asia. Among the distinguished guests were also Antony Cook, Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Microsoft Corporation and Alan Waldbaum, Assistant General Counsel at Microsoft...
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An Indian company is breaking down the barriers in education through their refreshable Braille devicewoman. Ioana Tanase writes.
Vision Empower (VE) was honored with the Excellence Award at the Social Impact Summit held by IIM Bangalore. Our esteemed co-founder, Prof. Amit, graciously accepted the award on behalf of VE. Additionally, he actively engaged in a panel discussion alongside representatives from Sri Sathya Sai Annapoorna Trust, Dushanbe Foundation, and...
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Vision Empower (VE) recently launched its Hexis Pilot Program, a series of sessions to assess the children’s proficiency in using Hexis, Vembi Technologies and VE’s electronic refreshable braille reader. The program commenced on December 14th 2023 in Karnataka with 31 students with visual impairment as they navigated through Hexis to...
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Vision Empower recently organised a comprehensive Pragya Teacher Training from 14th to 16th January 2024 at the esteemed Ramakrishna Mission Blind Boys Academy in Narendrapur, West Bengal. The three-day event aimed to equip 22 special educators from 13 special schools with VE’s STEM & CT teaching methodologies. The program commenced...
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Vision Empower recently organised a series of Braille reading and writing competitions across 34 special schools of Odisha, Jharkhand, Tripura, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka from 4th to 14 January 2024. This was held as part of observing World Braille Day and honouring the remarkable invention of Louis Braille that...
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Vision Empower (VE) conducted a two-day Pragya Teacher Training at the Government College of Education, Pudukottai, Tamilnadu on 4th & 5th January 2024. The teacher training aimed to empower 115 B.Ed and M.Ed students with teaching methodologies and resources used in teaching STEM & CT concepts to children with visual...
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“I feel more equipped to support my child’s learning journey after attending this workshop. It’s amazing how a small pre-Braille kit can make a big difference” Ms Rahna, a parent of a child with visual impairment who attended VE’s pre-Braille workshop. Vision Empower in collaboration with Rahmaniya School for Handicapped hosted...
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“I have been teaching since 18 years to children with visual impairment and we were limited to using the Taylor frame for teaching maths. However, with the activities VE provides through the Pragya Training and Teacher Instruction Kits, we are able to teach children STEM concepts effectively. The children learn...
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Children from Louis Braille Memorial Model School For The Blind, Idukki transcended the limits of their senses and delved into the mysteries of the universe and the realm of numbers at the one-day STEM camp held at school on 9th December 2023, Saturday. The one-day STEM camp was planned as...
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On the radiant Tuesday morning of 5th December, the air buzzed with excitement as 19 children from Kerala School for the Blind, Mankada gathered for a unique adventure- a one-day science camp hosted by Vision Empower on animals. The science camp commenced with a walk through nature with children listening...
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Vision Empower organized its second in-person Pragya teacher training session in Pune, Maharashtra on November 29th and 30th, 2023. The training successfully engaged 23 educators from six different schools. The primary objective of this Pragya was to understand and exchange the implementation of various teaching methodologies and pedagogies in the...
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Vision Empower participated in the EMPOWER Conference 2023, which took place at IIT Madras Research Park in Chennai from the 5th to the 7th of October 2023. The EMPOWER Conference serves as an annual technical convergence point for various stakeholders within the assistive technology industry, such as researchers, user organizations,...
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Vision Empower collaborated with Microsoft India for a remarkable volunteering event on 4th October 2023. This event was conducted as part of celebrating the GIVE month at Microsoft, an initiative for the employees to contribute their time to support various charitable causes. This year, Vision Empower had the distinct honour...
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Head over to page Pg 40 to read Vision Empower’s work on ‘Happily Bridging the Computational Thinking Divide’
Vision Empower in collaboration with Samgra Shiksha, Government of Uttarakhand, conducted a 3-day Pragya Teacher Training Workshop from 25th to 27th September 2023. This was the first ever Pragya conducted for all the 29 government special educators and 13 district coordinators of Uttarakhand. Day 1 started with the inauguration of...
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In celebration of Teacher’s Day, we’ve got something special for all the kids in Karnataka! From September 5th to October 28th, get ready to embark on an incredible journey with “Story Akka” 📻 – a radio program series in Kannada, set to launch on All India Radio, Akashvani. This unique...
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Vision Empower recently conducted a three-day Teacher Training Program in collaboration with the National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities (NIEPVD) in Chennai, India from 22nd to 24th August 2023. The program aimed to empower educators in enhancing their teaching skills, particularly in the fields of Science,...
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The first Pragya Teacher Training program, organized by Vision Empower (VE) in West Bengal, took place from August 10th to 12th, 2023. It brought together 32 teachers from 9 special schools. The training focused on helping teachers understand the difficulties they face while teaching Science and Mathematics. They were shown...
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The accessible ECE (Early Childhood Education) program by Vision Empower to help children to be at par with their sighted peers in the school-going age group has been featured in Samuhik Pahal, June-July 2023. Against the Odds by Vaishali Kotecha Imagine a world where the ideals of John Lennon’s classic ‘Imagine’ become more...
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Vision Empower was invited to conduct a session on assistive technologies as part of the four-day teacher training conducted by the Mathruchhaya- Canara Bank Relief & Welfare Society. The two-hour session conducted on the 7th of July 2023 was led by VE’s co-founder Vidhya Y along with VE team members Rajeswari,...
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Supriya and Vidhya, co-founders of Vision Empower (VE), were invited to represent VE at the Kigali Global Dialogue 2023 and the Kigali Startup Bootcamp at Kigali, Rwanda from June 12 to 14th. The conference was attended by policymakers, academics, civil society, and the private sector from around the world to...
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Vision Empower (VE) was invited to be a part of the policy discussion organised by Xavier's Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged along with Rising Flame and Mariwala Health Initiative on the theme of Education and Disability as a part of the Disability, Equity and Justice Working Group under the C-20 banner.
We are glad to share that academic abstracts from a few of the schools, we have been working with, have been shortlisted for the CTiS (Computational Thinking in Schools) conference. These include Saksham Trust (Noida), National Association for the Blind (Uttarakhand), TELC (Tirupatthur), Govt School (Uliyampalayama) and Welfare School for...
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Vision Empower (VE), in partnership with the National Institute for Education of People with Visual Disabilities (NIEPVD), is delighted to announce the launch of an enriching course designed to strengthen computational thinking and digital literacy skills for student teachers. The course will commence on 3rd June 2023. This 16-week course...
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Vision Empower in collaboration with the SSEPD Department, the government of Odisha conducted a four-day Anubhav: Experiential STEM Learning sessions for teachers and students with a visual impairment from 25th to 28th April 2023. On the first two days i.e. 25th and 26th April, 21 students and 5 teachers from...
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The VE team conducted a Project VICT (Computational Thinking for Visually Impaired) session and an Anubhav session involving a few experiments in Science in Ramakrishna Mission Blind Boys Academy in Narendrapur, Kolkata.
A small team of three (Devidatta, Supdipta and Shiladitya) from Vision Empower reached the School of Mother Elizabeth for the Visually Impaired in Jowai, which is located in the scenic terrain of West Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya.
by Saniya Pitkar, Volunteer, Christ University, Bangalore
Have you ever wondered how we make science and math more accessible and fun for children with visual impairments? Anubhav Sessions is an experiential learning method that aims to do just that! We recently conducted Anubhav Experiential Stem Learning sessions in five schools of Kerala between 28th February and 9th March, with 114 children and 41 teachers from the Calicut HSS For The Handicapped, Rahmaniya School for the Handicapped, Aluva School for the Blind, Helen Keller Centenary Memorial Model School for the Blind, and Kerala School for the Blind.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bangalore collaborated with Vision Empower to share the knowledge of science and space among students with visual impairment studying in grades 5, 6 and 7.
Once again, our supporter Microsoft India decided to volunteer with Vision Empower. The two organisations teamed up to create DIY tactile diagrams for the students with visual impairment in Bangalore on the 2nd of March and in Hyderabad on the 3rd of March, 2023. 41 & 92 Microsoft employees volunteered in Bangalore and Hyderabad respectively to create tactile diagrams which will be used to help teach science concepts to children with visual impairment studying in special schools.
National Science Day is celebrated in India on February 28th each year to mark the discovery of the Raman effect by Indian physicist Sir C. V. Raman. To celebrate the spirit of science, we decided to conduct a science camp for students with visual impairments we work with.
Vision Empower conducted a two-day Pragya Teacher Training at the Sharp Memorial School for the Blind, Dehradun. The training started with an introduction to VE interventions as well as a briefing about VE’s teaching methodologies. The teachers were given hands-on training on how to use accessible materials like Teacher Instruction Kits, Tactile Diagrams, Geometry Kits, etc. in teaching STEM concepts to the children with visual impairment.
Vision Empower conducted a two-day Pragya teacher training on the 20th and 21st of February 2023 with 33 B.Ed teachers from Ramakrishna Mission Narendrapur in Kolkata. The B.Ed teachers were introduced to the pedagogical goals with which the Hexis Antara solution was devised and then instructed on how to use...
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Vision Empower conducted a one-day Pragya Teacher Training at National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities (NIEPVD), Chennai for B.Ed college students with visual impairment.
Vision Empower in collaboration with the Social Security & Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Department (SSEPD), Government of Odisha, conducted a three-day Pragya Teacher Training at the IIC centre, Khordha.
Vision Empower in collaboration with The Karnataka Welfare Association for the Blind (KWAB) conducted a braille reading and writing and pick and speak competition for students with visual impairment on 28th January 2023 at the National Association for the Blind (NAB), Bengaluru.
Vision Empower in collaboration with The Karnataka Welfare Association for the Blind (KWAB) is organising a braille reading and writing and pick and speak competition for students with visual impairment on 28th January 2023 at National Association for the Blind, Bengaluru. This is a State Level competition, for students with...
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We are grateful to Microsoft for giving us this opportunity to present our work to Mr Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO and Mr Anant Maheshwari, President of Microsoft India on 4th January 2023 in New Delhi as part of Microsoft’s Tech for Good and Education showcase. The event was conducted to...
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Vision Empower conducted a Pragya Teacher Training for the second time at National Association for the Blind, Haldwani on 13th and 14th December 2022. Attended by 13 teachers, the training equipped them in teaching STEM concepts using VE’s accessible learning resources. The teachers were also engaged in playing various VICT...
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Vision Empower in collaboration with Sankara Eye Foundation conducted a one-day Teacher Training Workshop with 35 BIERT teachers on 15th December 2022.
STEM Curriculum has been introduced to visually impaired students in the government schools of Karnataka. The curriculum has been introduced by Vision Empower in collaboration with Microsoft India, Sankara Eye Hospital. Tap the link to read press release on VE & Sankara Eye Hospital’s collabration covered by Times Now.
As the first child to be born blind in Thirumagondanahalli village located on the outskirts of Bengaluru, Vidhya Y faced myriad challenges whether it be getting access to education or getting a job even after being the gold medalist at her college. Determined as a young child to not give...
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“I never thought games like ludo and snakes and ladder could be made tactile which are played by children with visual impairment”, shared Shriya who was introduced to the interventions of Vision Empower (VE) at the Bangalore Airport. As part of observing the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, VE...
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On 25th November 2022, VE conducted an Anubhav- Experiential STEM Learning session with the students from Higher School for the Blind, Palayamkottai, Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. 45 students with visual impairments from grades 1-8 actively participated in the day-long Anubhav workshop which was divided into two parts- Maths & Science....
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Vision Empower conducted its first-ever Teacher Training in Jharkhand 21st and 22nd of November 2022. The training was conducted in the capital city at Brajkishore Netraheen Balika Vidyalaya. A total of 7 teachers from 3 special schools attended the training which focused on equipping them in teaching STEM concepts to...
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“I pledge to enhance digital skills of women and girls with visual impairment”, shared Vidhya Y in the discussion conducted by World Summit on Information and Society (WSIS) Forum 2022 on 22nd November 2022. The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum 2022 represents the world’s largest annual gathering...
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VE joins hands with the Odisha government to implement its interventions that aim to make STEM education accessible for students with visual impairment. Read the news here.
“Volunteerism is the voice of the people put into action. These actions shape and mould the present into a future of which we can all be proud.” – Helen Dyer As part of celebrating the month of giving, our partner- Microsoft India decided to give Vision Empower one of the...
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VE’s co-founder Vidhya Y was invited as a speaker at the Intuit India Accessibility Summit conducted on 9th November 2022. Vidhya shared about her challenges with getting accessible education as a child with visual impairment and how that motivated her to start Vusion Empower, a not-for-profit organisation working to make...
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VE conducted its first in-person Pragya Teacher Training at the Devnar School in Hyderabad, Telangana. A total of 10 Science & Math subject teachers attended the one-day training. The training was facilitated by VE Coordinators Meghna Chowdury, Nibin Mathew, Rajeswari Pandurangan and Shiladitya Datta.
Vision Empower was invited by Giftabled India to demonstrate the usage of the Hexis Antara solution at an assistive technology expo organized by Goldman Sachs in Hyderabad.
Vision Empower participated in the fifth EMPOWER Conference conducted by IIIT-Bangalore at IIT Madras Research Park, Chennai. The conference witnessed various stakeholders in the assistive technology sector, including researchers, organizations, industries and policymakers coming together to create and share 'Assistive Technology Solutions.
On 1 st October (Saturday), 11 teachers from the special school attended the teacher training workshop conducted by Vision Empower. Out of them, 4 teachers are visually impaired. It was an online training facilitated by VE Educational Coordinators Ms Devidatta, Ms Jyoti and Ms Prerana.
On Wednesday, September 28, 2022 Vision Empower's co-founder Vidhya Y was acknowledged and honoured at the 13th NCPEDP-Mphasis Universal Design Awards, along with 14 other innovators for her work in making STEM education accessible for children with visual impairment.
(Teacher Training at Pune, Maharashtra).
As Vision Empower (VE) continues to meet its goal of reaching 100 schools for the academic session 2022-23, we are training teachers from special schools every month. This month, we conducted a Pragya Teacher Training on the 12th and 13th of September at the Poona School and Home for Blind, Pune, Maharashtra. 22 teachers from 6 schools of Maharasthra, 5 from Pune and 1 from Mumbai, participated in the training aimed to equip teachers with accessible STEM teaching methodologies & resources.
The IEPVD Boys and Girls School at Agartala, Tripura celebrated Teachers' Day on 5th September. As Vision Empower closely works with the teachers and students from IEPVD, Sudipta- VE's School Coordinator was invited to the celebration by the students she regularly conducts VICT sessions with.
Vision Empower conducted a two-day Pragya Teacher Training in hybrid mode, in IEPVD Boys’ and Girls’ School, Narsingarh, Agartala. The training was focused on foundational concepts of Algebra, Geometry and Science module. A session on Braille literacy with students was also conducted.
Vision Empower conducted a Pragya Teacher Training workshop in collaboration with the Department of Special Education, Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science & Higher Education for Women in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu under the able guidance of Dr Victoria Naomi, Dean of Special Education, School of Education at the Institute.
On 12th August 2022, Vision Empower (VE) in partnership with IIIT-Bangalore and Microsoft Research hosted, Shri Ashok Chandra Panda, Minister of Science and Technology, Public Enterprises and SSEPD (Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities) along with Mr Bhaskar Jyoti Sarma – Secretary, SSEPD (Social Security and Empowerment of...
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After a much-awaited wait due to the pandemic, students enjoyed learning STEM concepts through fun and accessible practicals in the Anubhav sessions. A series of 3 Anubhav sessions were conducted by Vision Empower at 3 schools in Bangalore, namely Mathru Educational Trust for the blind, Jyothi Seva School and The...
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A comprehension reading activity was conducted by Vision Empower with students from The Karnataka Welfare Association For Blind (KWAB) on the occasion of Helen Keller Day. The students were divided into two groups for the reading activity. The first set of students were taken to a classroom where the VE coordinators handed the Hexis device to each one of them.
It’s been 142 years since Helen Keller, an American author, lecturer and political activist was born in Alabama, U.S.A. She is celebrated for being the first deafblind person to earn a B.A. degree and begin a revolution in the level of awareness in society about the capabilities of people with blindness and deafness.
Vidhya Y, one of the founding members of Vision Empower was invited as a Resource Person at the Consultation on Capacity building for People With Disabilities (PwDs) in Internet Governance organized by the Asia-Pacific School on Internet Governance (APSIG) in partnership with the Internet Society's Accessibility Standing Group
A three-day Pragya Teacher Training was conducted by VE in collaboration with Mathruchhaya Trust, Bangalore. A total of 27 teachers participated in person out of which 7 are sighted, 2 have low-vision and the rest 18 teachers are persons with visual impairment. 6 teachers participated online via zoom.
"We never thought numeracy concepts can be taught to children using Braille card games”,said teachers of the National Association for the Blind (NAB), Haldwani after attending the teacher training.
As the first child to be born blind in Thirumagondanahalli village located on the outskirts of Bengaluru, Vidhya Y faced many challenges. Read this article written by Tenzin Norzom to learn how Vidhya came up with solutions to the obstacles she faced.
“15% of the world’s population lives with some or the other form of disability” shares Vidhya Y in the panel discussion conducted by World Summit on Information and Society (WSIS) Forum 2022 on 28th April to celebrate Girls in ICT Day. The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum...
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In this article written by Anjali Krishnan, co-founder of Vision Empower Vidhya Y shares her experience and inspiration behind starting a non-profit organization called Vision Empower.
Vision Empower revived its offline teacher training after a long time of conducting numerous online teacher training. The three-day Pragya Teacher Training was conducted in Tripura from 30th March to 1st April 2022 by VE facilitators Devidatta Ghosh, Meghna Chowdhury, Sudipta Ray Chaudhury and Rajagopal N.
"A vision to guide the challenged"- VIDHYA Y'S STORY FEATURED IN THE INDIAN EXPRESS Mocked for choosing mathematics in her childhood and discouraged by several institutions and teachers against pursuing science, Vidhya Y defied all odds to not just bag gold medals in her Masters, but is today leading other visually-challenged people to taste success, through effective learning in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses.
Vidhya Y attended the annual event of Entrepreneurship Cell & MSME Cell of NITIE (National Institute of Industrial Engineering ) Mumbai as a speaker. Vidhya Y shared her story of success.
A fireside chat by Vision Empower
The National Science Day is celebrated every year on 28th February in India to mark the contributions of scientists towards the development of the country. On this day, in 1928, Indian Physicist Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman made an important discovery in the field of spectroscopy, which was later named after him – the Raman Effect.
VE conducted an online science quiz for students from grades 3 to 10 from all the schools VE engages with. There were over 140 students who answered the Science and Nemeth related questions in the quiz and over 16 students got all the answers correct.
Speech by the students on Sir C V Raman on the occasion of National Science Day
We bring to you a fireside chat by industry experts on the occasion of National Science Day 2022. The speakers for the talk 'STEM Education- The need for it be to be Experiential and Inclusive!' would be Mr Kartik Sawhney and Dr Procheta Mallik.
“The current generation has over 1.1 million children with visual impairment in India yet in all the generations till now, less than 50 of them have chosen to study STEM subjects beyond high school”, shares Vidhya Y in the panel discussion conducted by World Summit on Information and Society (WSIS) Forum 2022 on the International Day for Women and Girls in Science.
On 4th January 2022 on the occasion of World Braille Day, Vidhya Y, the co-founder of Vision Empower moderated a panel discussion organised by the Cognizant Foundation. The topic of the panel was “An inclusive society for persons with visual impairments” where experts working in this field came together as...
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On the occasion of International Braille Day 2022, Vision Empower launches its Braille Reading Initiative at schools.
On International Braille Day 2022, Vision Empower expresses its gratitude to the co-creators of Hexis, Rajagopal N and Paul D’ Souza. Hexis is an electronic Braille reader which automatically converts text to Braille on a refreshable Braille display.
We have all heard or read about the inventor of the Braille script, Louis Braille. Louis was born on January 4 in 1809 in France and became blind after a childhood accident at the age of 3. But, he quickly mastered his new way of living. When Louis was only 15 years old, he created the Braille reading and writing system based on Charles Barbier’s night writing system (a note-taking system he invented of embossed dots to represent sounds).
(International Day for Persons with Disabilities, 3rd Dec 2021) A rainbow, out of the many storms that the Covid-19 pandemic brought, has been the increased usage of platforms like zoom. While we’ve all talked about the zoom fatigue and the boredom people faced all day working from home, there is a brighter side too. Assistive technology platforms like this have played an important role in empowering people with various disabilities to become contributors in conferences and events where earlier they would be mere participants.
(A talk by Vidhya Y in WSIS Forum 2022 Brainstorming Session) “Technology is a great enabler, it’s a necessity for women with visual impairment rather than a luxury”, says our co-founder Vidhya Y in a brainstorming discussion conducted by World Summit on the Information Society(WSIS).
(A Pragya Teacher Training Session with the graduates of NIEPVD) Over 20 Bachelors in Education (B. Ed) students from the National Institute For The Empowerment Of Persons With Visual Disabilities (NIEPVD), Tamil Nadu, attended the training which focussed on introducing the fresh graduates to Computational Thinking concepts through games.
Project VICT sponsored by Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd. and implemented by IIITB and Vision Empower, won the jury commendation certificate in the 19th FICCI Corporate Social Responsibility Award under the category of ‘Inclusive Development of PwDs’.
From counting rice grains as a child to becoming the gold medalist of her batch in IIIT-B, read the story of Vision Empower’s co-founder who was told to take ‘easier’ subjects as a person with visual impairment. Get to know how she defied all the labels put on her for choosing to study Mathematics and is now making STEM education accessible for children with visual impairment through Vision Empower.
Read Vidhya’s story featured by HerStory as a part of its Women Entrepreneurship Day coverage. The blog features remarkable women sho are running incredible ventures raising awareness on various issues people with disabilities face daily.
Vidhya Y, the co-founder of Vision Empower participated in Splendor 2021, an International Virtual Conference conducted by Cilre. The 3-day conference, from 18th to 20th November 2021, comprised of various panel discussions, fireside chats, workshops, etc all revolving around the theme “Future of Education”.
After a long dark struggle with the pandemic and with a misty view of the future, schools are reopening and students have been requested to attend school. What does this mean for the community of students and teachers with visual impairment and outreach wings of organizations such as Vision Empower?
Vision Empower (VE) participated in the 'EMPOWER Assistive Technology Conference' conducted by the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT-B) from 28th to 30th October 2021.
Vision Empower made a joint presentation on “Access to education amidst Covid restrictions: Enabling classroom interactions using a play-based learning approach” at Samvaad 2021
Vision Empower celebrated its fourth Foundation Day on the 4th of October 2021.
Are you passionate about Computational Thinking? Would you like to challenge yourself and make your CSPathshala Computational Thinking problems accessible for the children with visual impairment?
Vision Empower conducted a workshop on VICT – Computational Thinking for Children with Visual Impairment at the ACM India Computational Thinking at Schools Conference on 30th of September 2021 3:00 pm to 5:30 pm. Dr Swami Manohar and the Vision Empower team conducted the two and a half hour workshop...
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Vision Empower in collaboration with Canara Bank Welfare Association (Matruchhaya) conducted an online workshop on the 1st of September 2021 for The Regional Braille Press, Rama Krishna Mission Ashram, Narendrapur (West Bengal), and National Institute for the Empowerment of Persons with Visual Disabilities (NIEPVD), Chennai. Trainers: Ms. Kalyani and Ms. Pushpaja from Matruchhaya
Vision Empower is pleased to announce the commencement of the first Pragya training for teachers of children with visual impairment in Gujarat. The three-day training is being conducted online on 25th, 26th, and 27th of August 2021.
Vidhya participated in a panel discussion organized by the celebrated Information and Knowledge Societies for Sustainable Development Goals on the Stocktaking of Women in Technology. Watch the session here The session was insightful and the participants enjoyed it with great enthusiasm. More than 160 people joined us via zoom and...
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National Institute For The Empowerment Of Persons With Visual Disabilities (divyangjan) – Regional CentreDepartment of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities(Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Govt. of India)Poonamallee, Chennai – 600 056. & Vision Empower in partnership with Microsoft Jointly organize a 3-day online workshop on “Learning Numeracy through Play”...
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Rishi Vadhana, VE Educational Co-Ordinator was awarded the second prize for presenting her paper titled "Teaching of logical reasoning diagnosis for print-disabled students" at the Science through Inquiry and Research (STIR) competition hosted by Bishop Heber College, Trichy for participants who have enlivened their Project/Research based Learning.
Vision Empower in collaboration with Saksham conducted the first Delhi Online Computational Thinking for Visually Impaired curriculum (VICT) Teacher Training intervention for teachers of two special schools for the blind in New Delhi on 25th June and 26th June, 2021.