The Ahmedabad based NGO Sense India which provides education and other services to deafblind children partnered with Samsung recently to launch a new mobile app which enables two-way communication for the deaf-blind. Akhil Paul, Director, Sense India, gives us details.
The South Korean tech giant Samsung India, has partnered with Sense India, to launch Good Vibes, a new mobile application for the deafblind which allows communication with their caregivers and loved ones using their smartphones. Could you tell us a little bit about this initiative and how it started?
As you know, about 95% of what we learn, comes from what we see and hear. So without these two major avenues of learning, the child faces severe challenges in communication and mobility. Deafblindness is a unique disability which largely limits the understanding of the world to our finger tips and and sense of touch. They say ‘technology is great leveler’ and it did help in developing appliances which enabled deafblind people to ‘receive’ communication but for ‘expressing’ they depended on human support or traditional Braille. From the initiation of Sense India in 1997, we have been trying to find a technological solution which can open up simultaneous two-way communication using smart phones and we interacted with various IT based companies and individuals. In this process we invited Cheil India, the communications wing of Samsung Group, to attend one of our National Meet for Adult Deafblind which inspired them to think about vibrations as one of the key modes of communication and that’s how the journey of “Samsung Good Vibes” began.
Do you view Good Vibes as a breakthrough accessibility app for the deafblind?
Indeed, this is the first time in the history that a technology used by masses has helped us develop something which enables deafblind people to communicate not only with each other but also with anyone and everyone. With voice and text options for sighted-hearing people, the Samsung Good Vibes has given a breakthrough which is going to make two-way communication accessible and enhance inclusion of deafblind people in our communities.
Deafblindness is a combination of vision and hearing impairment and each individual with deafblindness may have different mode of communication. A particular mode of communication/ application that is useful to an individual could be totally different to another. Similarly, there are several other devices in the market which are based on technology, therefore it would be more appropriate to say that the Samsung Good Vibes app is one of the modes of communication for people with deafblindness but it may not be the only option.
Note: This app will be of great benefit to those people with deafblindness who do not have any other mode of communication with other persons.
What were the significant contributions of Sense India in developing Good Vibes?
Apart from providing subject based understanding in various ways of communication modes of deafblind people, we worked hard with the Samsung Good Vibes team in coding of alphabets and ensured that deafblind users are available to test and re-test the prototype. We also conducted series of in-depth training of deafblind users along with the educators so that all possible glitches can be solved.
How are you going to take the Good Vibes app to the deafblind across the country?
We will reach through the network of our partner organizations across India and also other organizations working with people with visual and hearing impairments. To begin with we are holding 5 regional workshops where we will conduct 3 days training on Samsung Good Vibes. We will also approach the Rehabilitation Council of India to include “Samsung Good Vibes” in the Teacher Training Curriculum so that all teacher trainees are exposed to it.
According to Sense India, there are more than 500,000 people with deafblindness/multi-sensory impairment (MSI) in India, and less than 16 per cent receive some form of specialist support. Do you think Good Vibes will really reach the masses in the deafblind community?
That’s a million-dollar question and I think the similar question must have been asked to Louis Braille, when he invented Braille in 1824. In this country, we have seen rapid growth of smart phones and with strong campaigns like ‘Accessible India’ and ‘Digital India’, we hope to reach the masses. There is no doubt that not all 500,000 will start using Good Vibes within a year but as the awareness and understanding about Deafblindness will grow, we will see that after initial training it will become one of major tools of two-way communication by deafblind.
What has been the feedback to the Samsung Good Vibe app from the deafblind? Is there a sense of excitement? Please give a few examples.
Feedback from Persons with Deafblindness-
- “Samsung Good Vibes gave me an opportunity to easily communicate with my teachers, family and friends. I can type short messages, send and receive messages”. - Pushpa
- “The good vibes app is very useful to me as it can now connect me to many people including Persons with Deafblindness. I can now socialize and reach out and gain more friends through this App, it will build relationships with the community/society. I wish that more people out there like me can have the same privilege, hope that the training to be continued for each individual with Deafblindness and I will be happy if I could be of any help in giving awareness about the App as well”. –Prabhakaran
- “I love this App as I am now able to use smart phones, exchanging messages with friends. I will definitely introduce the App to my friends”. –Bujjibabu
- “I am happy to learn this new App. I can now communicate with my friend, teachers, relatives and everyone through this App. I am excited and will teach my friend Saundarya who is also deafblind, as soon as I am back to school. Thank you all”. –Arihant
Feedback from Caregivers-
- ”Earlier when my sister used to go to college, we were a bit concerned about her safety. Now we are able to directly communicate with her through Samsung Good Vibes. The app has made our communications much easier”. –Rupa, Delhi
- “Thank you Sense India & Samsung for providing this training. Now that I’ve learned the codes I will be able to communicate with my daughter directly. I’m sure that it will be useful for Persons with deafblindness as a means of communication wherever they go. It is also very helpful for my daughter as it gives her a larger world to reach”. -Annamma, Kerala
- “I would like to thank Sense India team and the technical team from Samsung for providing this training. Now we have more options to teach our students with deafblindness”. -Umesh, Bihar
Feedback from Educators after the training-
- “The training was a very good experience for me. We can definitely teach this to our students. Although initially, there were some difficulties in grasping the codes, I am now confident in teaching this to my students. This will be another language which we can teach along with languages like braille and sign language” -Ms. Karishma, Goa
- “Thank you for providing the training on Good Vibes and I believe this will have a great impact for the two adults with deafblindness I am associated with in Waynad. It will be particularly helpful in the case of Senthil Kumar as he will be able to talk with his family while being at his job.” – Shaji, Kerala
What has been one of the biggest accomplishments of Sense India in empowering the deafblind community?
In our journey of 22 years in India, with the support from the donors, well-wishers and government, we have been able to reach out to about 80,000 deafblind people. We feel that our biggest achievement has been getting ‘deafblindness’ included and recognized under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 because this recognition makes them equal citizens of the country.
How can we ensure that deafblind children and adults are active members in society?
It’s simple. We need to give them equal opportunities in education, health and employment and we need to ensure that our infrastructure and systems include deafblind as equal users.
In a lot of disability circles the Samsung film 'Caring For The Impossible' around its Good Vibes app ad itself is being attacked and shows a very pathetic state of affairs for the deafblind person and the family? What is your response?
We are living in the rights-based world and it’s natural for people to react in this manner but I would like to bring to your attention that any difficult condition first exposes us to hopelessness and despair, that’s the first human emotional response and then we try and overcome it through our efforts. I am not, in any manner, undermining the criticism of some of my sector colleagues but we need to remember that only by showing a difficulty, we will be able to show that it can be solved. In the end the film proves that Deafblindness is not insurmountable and that’s the message we need to spread. However, one of the key message the film has tried conveying to the public is regarding the communication challenge faced by person with deafblindness and if they get right kind intervention in terms of communication, education through various means like technological support, then they can also lead a life with independence and dignity.
However, there are few parents of children with deafblindness, who after watching the Samsung Good Vibes film, called us to share how they could relate it with their own child and were desperately looking forward to receiving support from us.
PatientsEngage believes that the ad could have showcased the benefit of the product without trying to invoke pity. The ad shows an older child almost drowning in a tub at home. By that age, a deaf blind child would have learnt to navigate the tub. The parents sending the child away to a residential institution after the incident was also not realistic. With role models like Helen Keller and Haben Girma, there is no reason to show such a distressed state. The app would be useful even if the child was living at home with the family.
What are the future advances in accessibility technology for the deafblind?
Technology plays an important role in everyone’s life. The future advancement in the technology for persons with deafblindness and some of the work that is already going on are:
- Through technology, researchers are trying to make persons with deafblindness independent, communicate with others independently, travel safely and independently from one place to another.
- Technology that would be supporting in converting voice to sign language and vice a versa (suitable for both people with hearing impairment and people with deafblindness)
- Smart cane that utilizes GPS to determine the location and send it via SMS (suitable for both people with visual impairment and people with deafblindness)
- Some developments are also going on in making information accessible like access to news and other telecast on television, watch movies, sports etc…
- We also hope that one day all the mobile system would have an inbuilt braille slot and with one click the slot opens up like latest cameras inbuilt on the mobile phones. As of now the braille device is very bulky and they have to carry it along with the mobile phone/ laptop. But if it is inbuilt then they will have to carry only the mobile phones.
One last question, could you tell us the price range of the Samsung phone with the Good Vibe app?
The Samsung Good Vibes app can be downloaded to any Android phone as of now Samsung has made it available free on the play store.
Akhil Paul, Director, Sense India
