LingvoHelp

LingvoHelp app can let blind and visually impaired people learn foreign languages via live video thanks to bilingual volunteers tutors. LingvoHelp represents a mutual help both to people with disabilities who want to speak a foreign language and volunteers tutors willing to acquire or master their teaching skills.

The challenge 'Youth, Skills and the Workforce of the Future' is directly relevant to the LingvoHelp app, since the project can solve such tough challenges as:

Lack of innovative solutions ensuring equal access and inclusion of all genders and people with disabilities to quality education and skills development, as the main LingvoHelp users are disabled people willing to unleash their potential thanks to an effective language learning;

Shortage of innovative learning technologies to help increase skills development for disadvantaged youth around the world, since the project comprises an innovative audio perception methodology using very efficient iOS and Android features.

LingvoHelp has already received a very positive feedback from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Dr. Esuna Dugarova, Policy Specialist at UNDP, emphasized that our app could have a significant impact on the well-being of blind people in terms of enhancing their capacity and agency. The project is directly relevant to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 4 on inclusive education, (SDG 8) promoting decent work and economic growth, (SDG 9) on fostering innovation, and (SDG 10) on reducing inequalities.

We hope our innovative methods can foster ending the tough challenges and let fill gaps in the field of education for disabled people.

In 2017/2018 we aim to create LingvoHelp app on iOS and Android platforms and in 5 years we plan to reach 2,000,000 registered users.

Thanks to our partner, HeySuccess, the largest platform for international student mobility, we can empower young people to be engaged in 'distance volunteering' and skills development worldwide.

While Mr. Hans Jørgen Wiberg, Founder of Be My Eyes, my mentor, helps me impact more blind and sight impaired people thanks to Be My Eyes, already existing largest online community for the blind and visually impaired enabling us to engage two categories of LingvoHelp users.

Create LingvoHelp tutorials to motivate more volunteers to use the app - Within 3 months 15,000 volunteers signed up in LingvoHelp app

Inform more disabled people via MyDisabilityMatters, a large social community for disabled users - Within 3 months 20,000 blind and visually impaired users downloaded LingvoHelp app

Track downloads taking into account the countries - In 2017 500,000 people signed up in our app

The LingvoHelp project is a unique global solution, since this is the first initiative comprising a mutual benefit for both disabled people and volunteers irrespective of their age, gender and nationality.

Each lesson is based on three main aspects of language learning (speaking, vocabulary and grammar) and with the help of volunteers and accessible smartphone features such as VoiceOver on iOS and Talkback on Android enabling the blind and sight impaired to use their smartphones even if they don't see the screen, the process of the so called 'smart learning' lets the learners gain practical experience in barrier-free environment.

We do believe that LignvoHelp's mission is to be a perfect education solution not only for people with disabilities, but also for volunteers since the app can figure out some innovative methods of teacher training and practical skills development.

We also think that thanks to the app people can be involved in a large charity action realized by means of such profound social activites and desire of making good things for peace.

That is why LingvoHelp cares of its potential categories of users to let the blind 'see' the world through the language!

Thanks to smartphone accessibility services on iOS and Android blind students can create a profile to learn a foreign language signed by a bilingual volunteer tutor as his/her mother tongue while tutors can sign up by filling out their profiles (including information on a mother tongue, the first foreign language, education, work experience, social activities, personal projects and top skills) to teach blind and visually impaired students.

Volunteers tutors and vision impaired users can access their personal course programme based on three aspects of language learning in contrast to blind students whose lesson is based only on audio perception.

The main challenge is that about 90% of the world's visually impaired live in low-income settings. So the first factor is related to the lack of smartphones and the Internet access in developing countries;

Since the nonprofit project needs a constant financial support for the app development in both Android and iOS devices and its updating, there is a risk of not getting enough funding;

Distance language learning based on audio perception for blind and sight impaired students is rather innovative and it still requires testing.

https://www.facebook.com/LingvoHelp/

We believe Solve can give us a perfect chance of sharing our endeavor with other social entrepreneurs, innovators and change-makers who are also engaged in global initiatives which have a very significant impact on well-being of people worldwide.

We also hope to meet experts in the field of human-centered technology who can help us promote the project to be able to launch the app and make a larger community of volunteers and disabled peope living under the same roof called LingvoHelp!

HeySuccess - www.heysuccess.com

MyDisabilityMatters - https://mydisabilitymatters.cl...

Dr. Esuna Dugarova, Policy Specialist at UNDP - http://www.undp.org;

Dr. Esuna Dugarova on LinkedIn

Hans Jørgen Wiberg, Founder of Be My Eyes - http://www.bemyeyes.com

Ilmenau University of Technology, Germany