The National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People recently revealed that 32 of India’s top universities and institutions of higher learning have managed to fill just 16% of the minimum quota for differently-abled people. Then there’s the Supreme Court asking why the UP government couldn’t set up separate schools for the differently-abled, as we speak of mainstreaming and inclusion.
In this grim scenario, ‘Enable Makeathon 2.0’ brings good news. A programme initiated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and its partners, it helps develop prototypes and affordable solutions for challenges faced by differently-abled people, particularly those living in rural areas. Teams of engineers, scientists, designers, innovators, persons with disabilities, humanitarians, manufacturers, investors and entrepreneurs compete against each other for grants that will allow them to further develop and market their innovations. As the event gears up for the co-creation camp to be held on December 5, two days after December 3 - celebrated as International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we zoom in on three innovations.
A panel of experts will review the entries of 14 teams, where they will interact with differently-abled people, experts, mentors, designers, and investors. After an intense 15-day programme, 10 teams and their prototypes will advance to the next stage. The products will undergo refinement, and market- and user-testing for the next 6 weeks. On the day of the final competition, February 5, 2018, three winners will be awarded an incubator grant by ICRC to further develop their solutions.
Entry Ticket Redesign
Team – Welava, Delhi
Bhawna Welturkar, an architect and Abhishek Srivastava, an industrial designer, focus on accessible tourism. Their design intervention is an entry ticket targeted at the visually impaired to encourage visits to heritage sites. “We hardly see any disabled people at these sites. You don’t even know where and how to find toilets, how to navigate. A ticket like this can help,” says Welturkar.
The ticket provides instructions in Braille, has embossed graphics inspired by the predominant motif on the monument, a cut profile of the monument, a tactile map, a monument-specific aroma, and information on World Heritage Sites of India. There is also a provision of fixing a photograph of the visitor. “As soon as you come out, the ticket usually finds its way to the dustbin. Here, instead of adding to the waste, with a little value addition, it becomes a souvenir which you can take home,” explains Srivastava. A prototype of a Humayun’s Tomb ticket is ready to be tested and gather feedback at the upcoming co-creation camp.
MIP Sensors
Team – Autobots, Vellore
This team of four biotechnology students at VIT University in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, is trying to address a crucial problem faced by visually-impaired pregnant women. The group has come up with a product which can help them perform a home pregnancy test without depending on anyone. The usual pregnancy kit works for people who can confirm their pregnancy by seeing two lines. Visually impaired women are dependent on others to view the test results.
The test kit uses an upcoming technology called 'Molecular Imprinting' that detects the level of hCG in the urine sample and gives a sound signal announcing the test result. Molecular imprinting uses a polymer that is moulded into the shape of an hCG receptor that captures the incoming hCG molecules present in the urine sample. This results in aggregation and an increase in the total mass. The change in mass is immediately detected by a sensor that translates the signal to an amplified sound. “We aim to make it as user friendly as possible and sell it at a price similar to the existing pregnancy testing kits,” says Shibu Antony, one of the innovators.
ARICE
Team – Workbench Projects, Bengaluru
For Assistive Reader for Information Content and Entertainment project, the team had set out to work towards a software that would convert text to speech, but during the course of research, realised it will have to go beyond text and include shapes and symbols. “And it has become paper to speech. Paper, not literally, but anything that is in printed form. For instance, labels, the expiry date on a food product!,” says Aditya. The team of designers decided to keep it flexible and understand if they are on track at the co-creation camp. “We realised that we have a lot of assumptions about visually-impaired people. We assume that they want to know about colours, but what if that is not the case?”
