Women Making Things Better

ARMED WITH TECHNOLOGY AND A SIMPLE DESIRE TO HELP OTHERS, TWO WOMEN CREATED TOOLS THAT INCREASE EFFICIENCY, PRODUCTIVITY AND INCLUSIVITY

- Lili Li

They started out with small dreams, but Ms. Siroun Shamigian from Lebanon, and Ms. Kristina Tsvetanova, a Bulgarian living in Austria, both ended up far from what they had wanted to accomplish. Ms. Shamigian has co-founded Kamkalima, an online platform that uses AI and data analytics to help schoolteachers better cope with the requirements of their profession, while Ms. Tsvetanova has co-founded Blitab Technology, creator of a tactile tablet for the blind and the visually impaired.

They simply wanted to help people they knew, but somehow ended up championing the greater inclusion of people – fellow Arabic schoolteachers in the case of Ms. Shamigian, and the visually impaired in Ms. Tsvetanova’s – who have not benefited as fully as the rest of us from the digital revolution.

This year, for their efforts, Ms. Shamigian and Ms. Tsvetanova are among the recipients of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards, launched by the French jeweller and watchmaker in 2006 to recognize the far ranging positive outcomes of femaleled businesses.

SETTING SIGHTS ON TECH

A simple request from a university classmate set Ms. Kristina Tsvetanova on her way to develop a revolutionary tool for the blind. “When my colleague asked me to sign him on an online course, I realized that despite widespread use of digital technology, it has remained inaccessible to the visually impaired.”