News & Updates

Another Pragya in Pune

Another Pragya in Pune

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…
VE at Empower 2023

VE at Empower 2023

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,…
VE's Ananda meets Microsoft's Give

VE’s Ananda meets Microsoft’s Give!

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…
Pragya Teacher Training in Uttarakhand

Pragya Teacher Training in Uttarakhand

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…
Story Akka

Story Akka

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…

Tamil Nadu Pragya Teacher Training

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,…

VE conducts its first Pragya Teacher Training in West Bengal

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…

Inside the world of Assistive Technologies, a session by VE

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,…

Vision Empower at the Kigali Global Dialogue 2023

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…

Shortlisted for the CTIS Conference 2023

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…
Vision Empower's B.Ed Course

VE Launches its First Short Course for Student Teachers

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…

Anubhav in Odisha: 4 Days Of Experiential Stem Learning

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…

VE interventions reach Meghalaya

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.

Anubhav: Experiential STEM Learning Sessions in Kerala

by Saniya Pitkar, Volunteer, Christ University, BangaloreHave 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…

All About Space Travel, an experiential session by ISRO

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.

Microsoft Employees Volunteer with VE

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…

Doing and Living: An Accessible Science Camp by Vision Empower

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.

Pragya Teacher Training in Dehradun

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…

Pragya Teacher Training in Kolkata

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…

Training the Teachers of Tomorrow

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.

First Ever Pragya Teacher Training in Odisha

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.

State-Level Braille Competition!

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.

State Level Braille Competition- 214th Louis Braille Day

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…
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft with Vidhya Y

VE presents its work to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

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…

Pragya Teacher Training at NAB, Haldwani

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…

Inside a World of Accessibility, VE Experience Zone At The Bangalore Airport!

“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…

Anubhav- Experiential Stem Learning

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.…

Pragya Teacher Training in Jharkhand

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…

Vidhya Y Shares Shares About Her Work As A Wsis Gender Trendsetter

“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…

Microsoft Volunteers With VE

“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…

Vidhya Y Shares About Vision Empower At The Intuit Accessibility Summit 2022

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…

Training Teachers of Telangana

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.

VE at EMPOWER 2022

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.

Vidhya Y honoured at the NCPEDP-Mphasis Universal Design Awards

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.

Another Month, Another State, Another Pragya!

(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…

Teachers’ Day Celebration at IEPVD Tripura

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.

Training Teachers of Tripura

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.

Pragya Teacher Training At Tamil Nadu

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.

Joining hands with the Odisha Government

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…

Reviving Anubhav (Experiential Learning)

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…

Becoming friends with Helen Keller via Hexis!

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…

VE & Mathruchhaya Join Hands For A Pragya Teacher Training

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.

Training the Teachers Of NAB

"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. Vision Empower conducted a Pragya Teacher training at NAB Haldwani, Uttarakhand. The sessions were conducted by Jyoti, Anshumaan and Rajagopalan…

Your Story features Vidhya Y’s Story

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.

The Better India features Vidhya’s Story

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.

Vidhya Y Shares Her Story At NITIE Mumbai

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.

Stem Education: The Need For It To Be Experiential And Inclusive

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,…

Science Quiz

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.

Electronic Braille Reader Hexis : The Creators

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.

Behind The Scenes Of Accessibility

(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…

Breaking Barriers For Women With Visual Impairment

(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).

Trained to Teach

(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.

Vidhya Y’s Journey Featured In ‘the Logical Indian’ Blog

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…

Splendor Conference by Cilre on the Future of Education

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”.

Vision Empower Featured In Wipro Foundation’s Samuhik Pahal Newsletter

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?

EMPOWER Assistive Technology Conference

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.

VICT Play Plan Challenge

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?

Workshop on Creation of Science and Math Text Books in Braille

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.…

Official Launch of WSIS Stocktaking Repository of Women in Technology

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…

Learning Numeracy through Play – 3 Day Workshop

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”…

Science through Inquiry and Research (STIR) competition Award

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.

Online Pragya – Delhi VICT Teacher Training Report

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.

Online Pragya June 2021 – A Report from Tamilnadu

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…

Global Accessibility Day

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.

Online Pragya – Tripura session

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…

Workshop: Creating Accessible Documents Using MathType

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.

What Assistive Technologies Can Do To Make STEM More Inclusive

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…

Nothing ‘special’ about these needs

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.

Pragya Nov 2020

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…

Foundation Day of Vision Empower : Celebrating 3 Years

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…

VE accepted as Primary member, Daisy Forum of India (DFI)

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…

Visionary Ideathon

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

ICTD 2020 : Paper presentation

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)

Special Recognition Award. : Innopreneurs Startup Contest 2020

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.

Pragya January 2020

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…

Empower 2019

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…

DH Changemakers | A vision to empower

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…

Inclusive-Stem Confluence 2020

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…

Bengaluru Tech Summit 2019

During the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2019, Vision Empower (VE) was given an opportunity to showcase Hexis in the IIITB pavilion.

Anubhav 2019

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.

Making STEM accessible with the aid of Geometry Boxes

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.