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, businesses, and policymakers.

Having been a regular participant in the EMPOWER conference since 2018, this year marked the first time that Vision Empower (VE) showcased its work in the field of assistive technologies at the exhibition stalls. At the event, VE featured its accessible VICT games at one stall and presented Subodha and Hexis at the other.

The exhibition stalls garnered attention, particularly from students of Poonamalle School who actively engaged with the accessible Sudoku and bingo games. Notably, the Disability Commissioner of Goa also visited the stalls and commended Vision Empower for its dedicated efforts towards fostering accessibility and inclusivity.

Moreover, VE contributed significantly to the conference through multiple paper presentations. Sylvia Veeraraghaven and Jyoti Bisht highlighted their collaborative work with Continual Engine in remediating Odiya textbooks, making them accessible for visually impaired children. They elaborated on the incorporation of alt text for tables and images, accessible via VE’s Refreshable Braille Device, Hexis.

Shiladitya Dutta shared insightful findings from their extensive research on VE’s Refreshable Braille Reader, Hexis. Additionally, Aishwarya Othena shed light on VE’s extensive contributions in promoting digital literacy, aiming to facilitate computer literacy for both visually impaired teachers and students.

Supriya Dey, the co-founder of VE, delivered a compelling talk titled ‘Unlocking the Potential of Accessible Edtech – A Case Study through Vision Empower Interventions.’ The talk emphasized VE’s engagement model in preparing students and teachers from special schools for an Accessible EdTech Model through digital literacy courses and VE’s accessible Learning Management System (LMS), Subodha, in collaboration with various EdTech companies.