How Annie helps children learn Braille on their own

Annie is a self-learning Braille device for the visually impaired

- ANUJ BHATIA

A CONVERSATION THAT started at a breakfast table between Aman Srivastava and three of his friends from BITS Pilani, Goa, soon took the shape of a research project. It eventually led to a prototype far from the friends' realm of imagination. That's how Bengaluru-based Thinkerbell Labs developed "Annie," the world's first self-learning device for teaching Braille to visually impaired kids.

Although there has been a global push towards inclusive education, Srivastava, 28, saw a gap between teachers not adequately trained and the lack of the right tools needed to provide early education for the visually impaired. Srivastava says when he and his team started working on Annie in 2016, they found that the traditional teaching method for visually impaired students required one-to-one hand-holding, which could be extensive in nature. "We realised that we could build something that amplifies the effectiveness of a special educator by developing a solution designed to cater to not one but multiple students at the same time. What would that world look like?" he said in an interview.