Vision in their eyes

Helen Keller is a source of inspiration for all the visually challenged But very few people know that Kellerrsquos teacher Anne Sullivan taught her the first letter lsquodollrsquo by spelling it on her hands which frustrated her at first Reason Keller did not understand that every object had a word uniquely defining it While Keller succeeded in finding her answers with the help of her teacher there may be many visually impaired children going through similar problems Fittle is a toolset which has Braille embossed on blocks When fixed together they take the shape and silhouette of the object Tania Jain a graphic designer and a student from the National Institute of Design NID has designed a unique toolset Fittle that has words embossed in braille on different blocks Whatrsquos so different about it then These blocks when put together mimic the shape and silhouette of the object thus helping the children visualise the word Fittle has partnered with Yahoo Japanrsquos project Hands On Search which enables children to get a 3D imprint of the object with the help of 3D printers ldquoI had attended a workshop called Design In You DIY Engineering the eye conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT at the BITS Pillani Campus in Hyderabad in July this year The workshop aimed at inspiring young graphic designers to come up with solutions that could help the blind to overcome their day today tasks Dr Anthony Vipin Das has started a campaign on the social networking sites to raise funds An interactive session with the visually impaired was a turning point in my life I interacted with a man named Venkatesh I was moved when he told me that he grew up asking his friends and family members to describe the object for him which he was curious knowing about as touch was the only sense that he relied upon to feel the object It was then that I decided to do something for the visually challengedrdquo says Jain Debanshu Bhoumik plans to integrate sound technology in the toolset for blind children to hearu00a0 While Jain initiated this project there are a few more people who have joined her team for this noble cause The designer and her team comprising Dr Anthony Vipin Das an eye surgeon based in Hyderabad and Dibanshu Bhoumik a student at NID are planning to introduce sound interaction for this project Bhoumik explains ldquoWe are trying to integrate this project with electronic sound interaction Consider the example of a lsquocatrsquo Kids will learn how to spell a lsquocatrsquo try to visualise what it looks like by organising the blocks and also hear what it sounds like through our integrated sound interaction technologyrdquo Tania Jain wants visuallyimpaired children to visualise the object while learning new words ldquoWe wanted to keep Fittle as an open source that could be accessible to all Hence we did not patent it Our aim is to bring maximum people together and use design and technology to enhance this toolset so that it can reach even remote places To source funds for this project we started a campaign on Indiegogo an international crowdfunding platform and created awareness about our project People across the world came forward and donated generously and we collected 3000 which helped us kickstart our projectrdquo explains Dr Das who is also a senior TED fellow Team Fittle has finished working on eight words such as fish cat dog bat and aim to complete the 26 words by March 2014 so that it can be introduced in the primary school curriculum for the visually impaired children Help bring smiles Jain tells us that Braille has a specific dictionary for each language The Fittle toolkit in is English Braille but their aim is to make this initiative global by providing this toolset in several other languages You can also contribute monetarily for this cause ldquoThe toolkit can be created in Hindi easily but we need help from foreign linguists for the global project We have collaborated with Asha de Vos a blue whale biologist who is helping us to come up with our Ocean Fittle series We are also in talks with a Spanish eye surgeon who has shown interest in developing Fittle for the children in Spanishrdquo explains Jain Finding new horizons Fittle has introduced this concept in Akropong School for the Blind in Ghana and are trying to make a 3D printer set for them They have also collaborated with Yahoo Japanrsquos project called Hands On Search by providing them part of 3D data to provide an opportunity of visual perception to the visually impaired kids Hands On Search has installed their special stations across blind schools in Japan A child has to search in for a word through voice input whereby he gets a 3D printed model of the object ldquoWe plan to give the first 100 toolkits free to blind schools across India We are also open to working with more young engineers to expand our initiative and make it bigger We are blessed with vision but visuallychallenged kids just have the sense of touch The least we can do is enhance the imagination power of these children through the sense of touchrdquo concludes Jain For more information log on to httpwwwfittleinu00a0