Bleewatch is a product that enables the deaf to dance on rhythm patterns. There's also BleeTV, offering education and entertainment, and AskBlee, which provides video content in Indian sign language (ISL) to users posing questions.
The idea of Blee Tech Innovations goes back to when classmates Janhavi Joshi and Nupura Kirloskar were studying at the Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune, and had to work on solutions for niche users.
"We selected the problem of deaf dancers," says Joshi, a trained Kathak performer.
"We developed a prototype for a wearable product that gave the hearing impaired rhythm patterns of the music through vibrations."
On getting a positive feedback, the two turned entrepreneurial with their idea in 2015.
Bleewatch is a product that enables the deaf to dance on rhythm patterns. "It aims to empower 50,000 deaf persons within the next two years," says Joshi. There's also BleeTV, offering education and entertainment, and AskBlee, which provides video content in Indian sign language (ISL) to users posing questions.
"People can ask our team questions on general knowledge, politics, current affairs or English language and get answers in ISL through creative videos," says Joshi, adding that at least 750 English words have been explained so far.
With more than 2,000 people from the deaf community regularly watching these videos, the outreach has spread across 15 states in India. "We currently run through WhatsApp, but AskBlee will soon have its first android app in order to expand exponentially," says Joshi.
People with disabilities, she adds, do not need sympathy but "more opportunities, inclusion and exposure".Their biggest challenge, though, is to develop high tech user devices that are cost-effective.
"It will be an ongoing task, but what keeps us motivated are the smiles and positive impact stories of the users," says Joshi, who, along with Kirloskar, continues to learn ISL every day from a deaf team member and dear friend.
No comments:
Post a Comment