Saksham in collaboration with HCL Foundation had started its project Experience zone- Affordable Assistive Technology for Persons with Print Disabilities in 2019. The objectives of this project are to sensitise the parents, educators and stakeholders about the available solutions, and to enable them to try out and identify most appropriate solutions for their specific requirements. The series of articles in coming weeks will focus on some innovative and interesting assistive solutions and their availability for persons with visual impairment on http://www.saksham.blog.
In India, millions of visually impaired individuals lack equal education and employment opportunities due to the inability to access printed, handwritten, and digital content on their own and it is because of this that 80% of the employable visually impaired are unemployed today.
Kibo XS- a product by Trestle Labs is the world’s first intelligent personalized scanning and reading device that reads printed and handwritten content across 12 Indian and multiple overseas languages via audio (through screen readers) with its quick and reliable technology. It leverages the power of artificial intelligence to enhance the accessibility of content in the lives of people with vision impairment and other print disabilities.
The Kibo XS device connects seamlessly with any Computer/ Laptop/ PC and even Phone via Kibo Web and Kibo XS mobile app respectively and offers the following salient features:
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Compatible with existing screen-readers (PC/Laptops) and Talkback (Smartphones)
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Listen to Printed/Handwritten text across 60+ languages including 12 Indian languages (English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Sanskrit, Urdu) in real-time through audio
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Download the scanned documents in Unicode formats – Doc, Docx, TXT, PDF, ZIP and even as images
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Ability to Translate text across 100+ languages in real-time
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Easy-access: Designed with human-centric design and accessibility guidelines, Kibo offers ease-of-use for everyone
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Reading features like Play/Pause, Navigation, Speech-rate and Text-to-speech selection
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Save the documents on Kibo Web Cloud for multi-device access anytime
Kibo XS can be used by Individuals, Inclusive Schools, Academic Institutions, NGOs, Workplaces and Public Libraries. The mere 400 gram, table lamp shaped device is the most affordable solution available at subsidized prices.
Mr Salunkhe from National Association for the Blind-Maharashtra tells ”With the affordable price of Kibo-XS, we can now have 4 such devices in one library rather than just one.”
Kibo XS device not only provides fast and accurate results but it also enables its users to read and learn independently thriving towards a world with equal reading and learning opportunities.
SAKSHAM 