One-line solution summary.
Vinsighte is a technology venture that aids the visually impaired and blind read books and other educational materials conveniently and independently.
Elevator pitch
What is your solution?
Vinsighte designed an assistive reading solution called Visis. Visis is an Artificial Intelligence application that aids the visually impaired to read printed books and educational materials independently and conveniently. It works by using OCR to capture printed books and read these books aloud to the visually impaired user.
Visis has impacted over 5000 visually impaired persons with 35 units of our devices installed in 8 visually impaired schools across Nigeria. With Visis’ assistive reading technology, thousands of visually impaired children who had lost hope on education due to lack of access to inclusive and convenient reading have been revived as they can now read printed books and educational materials like their other sighted peers.
Here is a video link that shows some of our beneficiaries testifying to the use of our Visis app; (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E53RbP40pqk&t=6s)
What specific problem are you trying to solve?
Vinsighte addresses poor quality and non-inclusive education that affects visually impaired and blind children and youths in Sub-saharan Africa.
Visual Impairment has been a limiting, depressing and overlooked problem in Africa with little help given in the region to help the victims enjoy a better quality of life.
According to WHO’s 2010 global data report, 26.2 million people suffer from visual impairment in Africa. Statistical analysis from the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness in 2019, also states that women account for 55% of the world's blind population with over 120 million women suffering from visual impairment.
Sadly, most of them are unable to read books and other educational materials independently which has further limited their access to inclusive education and job opportunities.
At Vinsighte, we are alleviating this problem by ensuring visually impaired persons in Africa enjoy inclusive education through our technology.
Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?
We target visually impaired children, youth and, women and girls in visually impaired schools and tertiary institutions across Nigeria.
Before now, most visually impaired persons make use of braille or assistance from human aids to read printed books and identify objects and scenes in their environment. However, with Vinsighte’s Visis AI application, visually impaired persons in Africa are now able to read books and identify objects around them through artificial intelligence technology independently and conveniently.
Our AI technology, Visis, gives our users who are visually impaired students access to African languages and accents and text-to-speech processed digital books. The Visis application is integrated into digital devices and distributed to schools, institutions, organizations and communities of the visually impaired via our partners, community workers, and technology experts. Units of our technology are installed in these institutions with one unit costing $250. We also have a subscription model where visually impaired persons and students in general, can access our software for an affordable fee of $3 monthly.
What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?
We have done our primary and secondary research to understand the pain points of these visually impaired persons across all customer segments (children, youths, women and girls) and also distributed our product across 8 visually impaired schools across Nigeria and we currently have over 5,000 persons impacted and 1,500 active users of our product.
Which aspects of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Improving learning opportunities and outcomes for learners across their lifetimes, from early childhood on (Learning)
Our solution's stage of development:
Growth: An organization with an established product, service, or business model rolled out in at least one community, which is poised for further growthExplain why you selected this stage of development for your solution—in other words, what have you accomplished to date?
Currently, Visis has impacted over 5000 visually impaired persons with 35 units of our devices installed in 8 visually impaired schools across Nigeria. Some of the schools include Pacelli school of the Blind, Lagos; Bethesda school for the Blind, Lagos; FCT school for the blind, Abuja; and Omoyeni school for the Blind, Ibadan.
Our current users or beneficiaries who are visually impaired students in schools of the visually impaired were reached through partnerships with these schools and other impact organizations who partner with us to subsidize and install our assistive reading technology in the schools’ library or computer rooms where all the students can get access to it per time.
Where our solution team is headquartered or located:
Ibadan, NigeriaTeam Lead:
Olarinde Olokuntoye
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new use of an existing technology (e.g. application to a new problem or in a new location)Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
Our solution, Visis app, makes use of Artificial Intelligence to aid the visually impaired to read printed books and educational materials independently and conveniently. It works by using OCR to capture printed books and read these books aloud to the visually impaired user.
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
In which countries do you currently operate?
How many people does your solution currently serve, and how many do you plan to serve in the next year? If you haven’t yet launched your solution, tell us how many people you plan to serve in the next year.
Our solution currently serves 1,500 visually impaired persons across Nigeria. We plan to impact 20,000 visually impaired persons in the next 12 months through launching our app on the android mobile store and consistent digital marketing and partnerships to reach our customers.
What are your impact goals for the next year, and how will you achieve them?
Our impact goal for the next 12 months is to expand our reach and impact to 20,000 visually impaired users by;
(i) installing our VISIS AI reading application in 20 schools of the visually impaired and tertiary institutions
(ii) Leveraging the Android mobile store to increase our reach, distribution of the VISIS AI app and overall impact.
(iii) Expanding to 1 African country. We have started this process by working on partnerships and expansion plans to Kenya in partnership with Project InAble.
(iv) Continuous update of our technology to have more features that would enhance ease of access for visually impaired students.
How are you measuring your progress or planning to measure your progress toward your impact goals?
We measure our progress based on the number of visually impaired persons who use our solution to read and improve their education in schools and institutions for the blind, and the general impact our solution has on their access to job opportunities and improved wellbeing.
Also, our progress would be assessed through the analytics of the number of visually impaired students who gained access to our Visis app via download from the android mobile store.
What barriers currently exist for you to accomplish your goals in the next year?
Some of our challenges to our goals for the next 12 months are; Product-market fit, funding and networks to scale our solution to other markets.
Regarding product market-fit, presently, our app can only read in English language which might not be suitable for other African markets like Kenya that would prefer the Swahili language. We are currently working on improving our app languages such that it will read in Swahili, French and German.
We would also need funding and partnerships that will help us scale and penetrate other African markets and the US.
How many people work on your solution team?
Full-time- 4, Part time-2
How long have you been working on your solution?
3 years
How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
Our team is made up of a blend of experienced business experts, engineers, doctors, and software developers. The organization’s structure is divided into: a core team - made up of the business and the technology team, and an advisory board. The business team has a total of 16 years of experience in building, managing, and scaling social impact enterprises within Nigeria. The technology team has a total of 12 years of experience in building and designing AI algorithms and software products. The core team is integrally supported by the advisory board made up of 4 experienced and senior level experts in the fields of technology, medicine and social impact.
What organizations do you currently partner with, if any? How are you working with them?
We are currently in partnership with ATOS and GIZ to further distribute our solution to visually impaired persons across Nigeria and they are also assisting us to penetrate the european market.
We are also in partnership with Halcyon House to scale our solution to the US.
Do you qualify for and would you like to be considered for The HP Girls Save the World Prize? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.
NoDo you qualify for and would you like to be considered for The Pozen Social Innovation Prize? If you select Yes, explain how you are qualified for the prize in the additional question that appears.
YesIf you selected Yes, explain how you are qualified for this prize. How will your team use The Pozen Social Innovation Prize to advance your solution?
We are qualified for the Pozen Social Innovation Prize because our solution addresses women and girls who have dropped out of school and lost out on a quality education due to visual impairment.
We will use the funding to reach out to the millions of visually impaired women and girls in Africa and give them access to our solution for a very subsidized amount.
Solution Team
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Olarinde Olokuntoye Co-Founder and COO, Vinsighte
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Solution Name
Vinsighte