how can I get the contact details of these persons?
Umesha
----- Original Message -----
From: "BHAVESH" <charmingbhav...@gmail.com>
To: "accessindia" <accessindia@accessindia.org.in>
Sent: Tuesday, 21 February, 2012 4:55 PM
Subject: [AI] How entrepreneurs like Shilpi Kapoor, Ferdinand Rodricks are
making technology, information more accessible to differently-abled
How entrepreneurs like Shilpi Kapoor, Ferdinand Rodricks are making
technology, information more accessible to differently-abled-economic
times
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/software/how-entrepreneurs-like-shilpi-kapoor-ferdinand-rodricks-are-making-technology-information-more-accessible-to-differently-abled/articleshow/11969040.cms?curpg=1
All you have to do is collect maximum fruits without banging into a
wall. When you approach a fruit, follow the sounds and choose your
direction carefully,"
says 22-year-old Bhavesh Patel, as he coaxes and challenges
half-a-dozen visually-impaired kids to play a game of Snake 3D
- a version of that iconic game that most Indians were addicted to in
the early days of the telecom revolution.
Patel was born blind, but he can play this game with his sense of
hearing: when the snake approaches the walls, a swooshing sound gets
louder, warning
players.
The Game At the Techshare Conference 2012, the first-ever
Accessibility and Disability conference to be organised in India,
several innovations like these were
on display. "Disability is a boring subject. I am tired of the drab
stuff and I thought gaming would be a welcome change to the entire
setting," says
Shilpi Kapoor,
MD of BarrierBreak Technologies,
who along with Royal National Institute of Blind
people (RNIB) UK organised the event.
Among other things, BarrierBreak runs a website signntalk.com, which
helps the hearing impaired communicate with the rest of the world
using sign language.
Basically, when a deaf person wants to make a call to a contact, he
logs on to the site and is connected to an interpreter. The
interpreter then facilitates
a conversation between the deaf person and the contact by interpreting
the latter's talk through a video link using sign language. It's not
rocket science,
but a great implementation of simple technology.
The Enablers
Kapoor is not the only social entrepreneur in this space. Take
51-year-old Ferdinand Rodricks,who runs Ferro Equip out of Mumbai. "I
helped customise a Fiat Padmini in 1982 for a friend afflicted by
polio. Since then, I have tried to help people with different kinds
of disabilities," says Rodricks for whom helping the disabled is a
hobby, not a commercial operation. In three decades, Ferro Equip has
designed swimming
pool hoists, wheelchair hoists, portable ramps and services like
vehicle customisation and making homes disabled friendly.
Rodricks proudest moment came when Stephen Hawking visited India and
he got the opportunity to customise his vehicle. But the most
emotional encounter was with a double amputee who wanted to drive a
gypsy. "I not only customised his vehicle, but also taught him to
drive," he says.
Or take MN Cooper, CMD of Pune-headquartered Modular InfoTech which
provides services and products for the visually impaired like Braille
software and
printing solutions. His Shree-Lipi Braille conversion software
converts text composed for sighted persons to Braille in all Indian
languages and English and vice-versa. "We have used language experts
from all over the country," says the 67-year-old.
The Blind Side
But why develop solutions for this market at all? Sadly, the numbers
are huge. According to the World Report on Disability 2011, a little
less than 15%,
or 1 billion, of the world's population is living with some form of
disability. In India, the number is estimated to be 70 million. Of
these, less than
1% has access to assistive technology. "There are a billion people
today with one or more disability. Their talents are not being
harnessed and this is
a huge loss of opportunity for the world economy," says Rob Sinclair,
chief accessibility officer at Microsoft, who has been involved with
the Redmond giant's accessibility effort since 1997.
--
with best regards,
Bhavesh.
Message composed on Dell vostro1440, using jaws for windows screen reader.
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