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.
Vision Empower conducted the first Pragya Teacher Training intervention for teachers of three special schools for the blind in Tamilnadu from 16th June to 18th June 2021. A total of 10 teachers attended this three-day online session. The three-day journey focussed on introducing the principles of teaching children with visual...
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Vision Empower celebrated Global Accessibility Day with two events. Awareness on usage of Screen Reader by persons with visual impairment and A Group Discussion based on Vidhya's TED talk. Great way to recognize the importance of Accessibility in our lives.
By Devi Lockwood
Erick Ponce works in a government communications department in northern Ecuador. The 26-year-old happens to be deaf — a disability he has had since childhood. Read the full article here
Vision Empower conducted the second Pragya Teacher Training intervention for teachers of two special schools for the blind in Tripura on 5th May to 7th May, 2021. A total of 10 teachers attended this three-day session. Since this was their first interaction with us, the objective of the session was...
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Vision Empower is conducting its 8th Pragya Teacher Training for teachers from 21 schools in Karnataka in English and Kannada from 21st to 23rd April 2021
On the 11th of April, Vision Empower organized a workshop for 25 student volunteers on creating accessible documents using MathType. Educational Coordinators from VE trained the students and worked with them from 10 am to 1 pm.
By Joel P Joseph
The Wire Science
Entrepreneur Christina Wallace wrote in 2015, “for most people – myself included – the default [picture of a scientist] is probably a white man in a lab coat, hunched over a microscope.”
Thanks to many individuals, collectives and movements showing the mirror on racial, gender-based and caste-based discrimination in STEM, this stereotype is slowly changing. However, few still have promoted the inclusion of people with a disability in STEM.
Vidhya Y wins the Special Women Achiever Award 2021 from Xiaomi India for her contributions to empowerment of the community through Vision Empower.
Vision Empower and XRCVC in collaboration with Samagra Shiksha Tripura announces the first I for Inclusion Training for 40 educators from the state
All for Play, Play for All is the motto of the the team passionate about Ludic Design for Accessibility. Visit the Ludic Design website to know more.
Vidhya Y is featured in TheLifeofScience.com calendar 2021.. This year’s calendar honors various ways in which women, transgender, and non-binary persons are contributing to science in India. It features around 40 contemporary individuals who are helping the growth of the Indian scientific and academic ecosystem.
Vidhya addressed a group of 100 students of 12th grade from the Ramakrishna Mission, Chennai and shared her journey and encouraged them to choose courses of their choice for higher studies.
To people with disabilities in India, STEM fields remain largely inaccessible. A glimmer of hope has come in the form of the National Education Policy 2020, but unless some serious gaps are addressed, progress is unlikely.
Vision Empower is happy to participate in the first Winter School of the Center for Accessibility in the Global South January 7th 2021 to January 9th 2021.
Supriya was part of a panel discussion at the online Wipro Partner Forum 2020 on the theme ‘Surviving to Flourish: Adaptations in the times of COVID-19.’
A three day online teacher training workshop Pragya’2020 was organized by Vision Empower on 9th, 10th and 11th of November. The workshop was conducted online on the Zoom platform and a mock session on how to join and operate the meeting on Zoom was conducted two days in advance to...
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We celebrated the Foundation Day of Vision Empower on 4th of October, 2020. Three years since being incorporated, Vision Empower has been very fortunate to have incredible team members, mentors, partners, student interns and volunteers without whose support we could not have implemented our pilot projects. Read the details and view the videos here.
Roulette opens a new world for blind and low vision students in terms of education and career opportunities. Read more
Vision Empower has been accepted as a Primary member of the Daisy Forum of India (DFI). On Saturday, 19th of September, Supriya was invited to present at the AGM of the DFI on the activities of VE and especially Subodha and its utility. The presentation was well received. VE joins this consortium to work alongside the members on various interventions to make accessible content for persons with visual impairment, especially in India.
Visionary Ideathon is a 3-day event from 27th - 30th August by Project Sitara Foundation in collaboration with Vision Empower Trust. It is an opportunity for you to contribute towards science education for the visually impaired children of class 10 across India
Vision Empower is covered as one of the case studies in Chap 3: Bridging digital divides: A framework for digital cooperation.
The paper "Conceptual Learning through Accessible Play: Project Torino and Computational Thinking for Blind Children in India", co-authoured by Gesu India, Microsoft Research India, Geetha Ramakrishna, Vision Empower, Joyojeet Pal, Microsoft Research India and Swami Manohar, Microsoft Research India, was presented at ICTD 2020 (Paper Session 4.1)
Vision Empower was one of the 7 finalists out of 53 teams selected at the 5th edition of the Innopreneurs Startup Contest 2020 held on Feb 1 and 2 2020 at Indore.
Vision Empower presented Hexis – the refreshable Braille book reader and was awarded the Special Recognition Award.
Visually impaired entrepreneurs are helping make science subjects more accessible to students like themselves.
Naini Thaker, Forbes India Staff reports
A two day Teachers’ training workshop Pragya’2020 was organized by Vision Empower, in collaboration with Mathruchhaya- Canara Bank Relief & Welfare Society on 28th and 29th of January. The workshop was attended by 13 teachers from 8 schools for children with visual impairment. Out of 13 teachers who attended the...
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Empower 2019, a conference hosted by IIT Delhi in partnership with Microsoft Research, was an event that aimed to bring together all stakeholders working in the assistive technology sector. Consisting of innovative talks, a tech exhibition, and 2 experience zones for persons with disabilities to experience technology curated with a...
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In 2017, as her classmates at the IIITB’s MSc in Digital Society showed job offers from tech majors, 24-year-old Vidhya Y watched it in dismay. She, after all, was the class topper and gold medalist, and no company had made an offer fitting her skill… “Some of the companies asked...
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The event is in third year running of its earlier Inclusive STEM Hackathon version. The hackathon was where blind and visually impaired developers, industry professionals and CS students came together to work on exciting and challenging problems. The aim of the hackathon was to sensitise the engineers from potential IT...
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During the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2019, Vision Empower (VE) was given an opportunity to showcase Hexis in the IIITB pavilion.
The New Indian Express
Oct 9 2019
Prof Amit Praskash, Supriya Dey and Aishwarya O presented the findings of the Ludic Design Approach. Watch the recording of the talk.
Anubhav 2019 was 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.
Vidhya and Supriya were speakers in a panel Discussion on “Inclusive Learning for the Blind, Let’s Embrace the Growing Needs of Stem Education, Impacts on Inclusion and Social Integration” at the SayEverything Convention 2019, jointly organised by SayEverything Group and Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled
Vision Empower is sincerely grateful to Mr. Balaji Varadarajan for contributing to this endeavour of making STEM accessible, by donating geometry boxes to all the schools using funds he has earned for his contribution as a Programming language trainer for visually impaired persons.
In what could be a boost in Science education for the visually impaired, the Indian Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIIT-B) has developed a technology to help generate tactile images of diagrams in Science textbooks faster.
VE and Enability Foundation incubated at IIT Madras signed an MoU on 6th of August 2019 to collaborate on creation of tactile diagrams using Tactograph, a product designed by Enability. The two teams will work on making more tactile diagrams available to VI teachers and students for Science and Math....
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Vision Empower signed an MoU with Matruchhaya to Create Braille books for Mathematics and Science for visually impaired students at schools for the blind in Karnataka and for Skill Enhancement of school teachers from special schools for the blind to teach Science and Mathematics to visually impaired students through classroom...
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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...
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I for Inclusion was organized by Vision Empower for its staff, researchers and volunteers on 20th May to 22nd 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...
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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.
Vision Empower addresses a gathering of teachers, government officials and NGOs at the Office of the Director for Welfare of Differently Abled and Senior Citizens.
The workshop , “Early Intervention and Access to Education ” held at The Association Of People With Disability (APD) was intended to create a more inclusive education system in India through culture, policies and, best practices. Supriya and Vidhya participated in the workshop along with stakeholders such as students, special...
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Vidhya spoke about the challenges of VI persons studying STEM , lessons from her personal journey and in an event organized by the Blind Graduates Forum of India, conducted by XRCVC, Mumbai and supported by Sight Savers. She shared information about the various Vision Empower initiatives, and the rationale behind...
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced that, as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility efforts under its Living Progress program, the company has deployed end-to-end wireless infrastructure from Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company at the I-MACX Studios located at the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B) Innovation Centre...
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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”
Dates: February 7 & 14 The third trimester teacher training program for teachers of Science and Math for Class 5 as part of VE-Pilot project was conducted at a school for children with visual impairments in Bangalore.
The second edition of Inclusive STEM Hackathon 2019 was organized at IIITB in collaboration with our partners IStem, XRCVC and IIITB.