Thinkerbell Labs

Currently, Annie is in 40+ centers in India, U.K. and U.A.E in 8 vernacular languages, impacting more than 400 visually impaired students.
The Elevate Prize funding will be used to help thousands of visually impaired students, in various regions, become literate, thereby kickstarting their education and paving the way to employment and independence. 
This will be achieved by using the funds for mass manufacturing of Annie devices, content development in 15 vernacular languages and accents, and sales efforts to reach out to visually impaired students in the U.S., South Africa, Australia, and Europe. It will also be used for pan India distribution of Annie devices in blind schools, Block resource centers, and inclusive setups. 
 

We're a tech-driven organization building innovative, accessible solutions in efforts to make education inclusive. Our current focus is to make products that help improve learning outcomes for the visually impaired. We envision a society where the visually impaired are independent and play a larger role in society. Our flagship product, Annie, started as a college project that gained a lot of traction over the years. Each one of our team members is an ambassador for Inclusive Education. With expertise and combined experience of over 2 decades in Inclusive education across the team, we design and manufacture customized hardware at a large scale in India and distribute across the country and internationally.

Our long-term vision is that Annie dramatically improves learning outcomes and increases the literacy rate of Braille worldwide. We believe that by onboarding millions of visually impaired people onto the connected platform and empowering them with relevant content, we would be able to convert people who were left out of the education pipeline to citizens who contribute positively to the economy. In our quest to build inclusive economic growth, this would be a transformative invention.

The problem: The braille literacy rates across the globe are abysmal - less than 10% in the US, less than 4% in the UK, and less than 1% in India. The current primary education tools include wooden blocks, marbles, and plastic slates, with continuous 1:1 teacher supervision. The lack of special educators, insufficient STEM content in Braille, and lack of general awareness have contributed to unemployability and inefficient rehabilitation among the visually impaired. The efficiency of Braille learning can be improved drastically. It is essential to address this issue as there is a very high correlation between Braille literacy and employment among the visually impaired.
Annie - The World’s First Braille Literacy device that helps the visually impaired learn to read, write, and type in Braille, on their own through interactive audio-guided content. Annie allows for easy monitoring and evaluation of student progress via Helios (analytics) and downloading of new content by seamlessly integrating with the ecosystem. It also allows for the scheduling of tests and lessons and also enables teachers to give homework. Annie gives instantaneous feedback for mistakes and continuously evaluates the user, making the learning experience engaging and retentive. 

Annie is the world’s first complete Braille Literacy Device packed with gamified and audio-guided interactive content. With Annie, a visually impaired student can learn to read, write and type in Braille. Annie is:

• Connected - Can be monitored easily. Enables special educators to focus on multiple students at the same time, track student progress, and recommend lessons, visualize usage and performance insights.

• Inclusive- Equips parents and regular teachers to cater to a child with special needs. Can be put into mainstream schools. 

• Innovative- A patent-pending device that has all the hardware modules tailored to teach Braille. The writing module has the world’s first digital Braille slate, The typing module has the Braille keyboard, and The reading module has refreshable Braille displays consisting of 2 large Braille cells and 6 standard-sized Braille cells. It works in conjunction with the typing and writing modules, thus helping the user learn in real-time to read and write/type Braille at the same time, ensuring better learning outcomes.

• Smart- Gives instantaneous feedback for mistakes and continuously evaluates users. 

• Human- Friendly human voice guides students in their local language, thus making learning more efficient.

• Gamified- Interactive premium content designed by curriculum experts.

Outcomes of the project:
Access: strategically located, connected learning centres with interactive, high-quality vernacular content for the visually impaired student 
Depth: Each visually impaired student will learn reading, writing, typing in Braille (literacy), numeracy, build a language vocabulary in English and their vernacular language of 1000+ words, have improved audio comprehension and spend 200+ hours learning on Annie with lessons, games and challenges.  
Personal Attention: Each student will get at least 30 minutes of focussed, personal attention learning on Annie.

Impact of the project:
1. Increase in Braille literacy rate
2. Increased employability as research has proven a link between Braille literacy and employability
3. Reinvigorated interest in learning, would increase word of mouth and lead to awareness and hence schools will see more enrollment of students with visual impairments. 
4. Increased employability would lead to higher incomes (economic) and reduced overall dependence on family members or the government. (support)