To create awareness about the available assistive technology that can help people with disabilities lead a quality and independent life and to mark the Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) is organizing an Assistive Technology Exhibition on 19 May 2022. Organized by LVPEI’s Institute for Vision Rehabilitation, the exhibit will have several assistive technology products on display that promotes digital, web, software, mobile, and infrastructural accessibility for people with vision impairment to help them integrate into the mainstream society.
“Among the several challenges towards inclusion, accessing public places is the biggest challenge for anyone with vision impairment. ‘Spacefelt’ the digital labeling tags address this vital issue by providing an audio description of the layout and help in navigation, thus enabling infrastructural accessibility. This technology is an important initiative towards promoting an inclusive society where persons with vision impairment can live a life of respect and dignity”, says, Dr Beula Christy, Head, Institute for Vision Rehabilitation, L V Prasad Eye Institute. Several interested visitors visited the Exhibition, including Doctors to see what is being exhibited and how it could help people with visual impairment, they know off. We are displaying assistive devices for People with impairment to help them in education, doing job, walking etc., at the exhibition. For example there are assistive software for a visually impaired person to use computers like a normal person, also there are adaptive techniques available for visually impaired to play board games. We launched a mobile based App the ‘Spacefelt’ technology along with QR CODE, for visually impaired to access various amenities in a public place, for example if a visually impaired wants to board a train, he can locate on his own the coach, his seat, fire exit, washroom etc. We will take this to the Government of Telangana for wider use in all Government and public places. These devices can help visually impaired to lead a better life, so this exhibition will create the necessary awareness.
Organized at LVPEI’s Banjara Hills Campus in Hyderabad, the day-long exhibition includes a guided tour to get firsthand experience of the ‘Spacefelt’ technology and an introduction to other assistive technology.
The exhibition will be open for friends from the media from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm on 19th May 2022. Vision impairment can have immediate and long-term consequences in children and adults, such as lost educational and employment opportunities, lost economic gain for individuals, families, and societies, and impaired quality of life. Unfortunately, 90% of the world’s visually impaired live in resource-poor countries such as India. The L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI) initiated vision rehabilitation services in 1992 and since then has been providing comprehensive care that ranges from assessment and prescription of low vision devices to social, educational, and vocational rehabilitation through training persons with low vision and blindness to the highest possible level of functional ability. LVPEI has successfully rehabilitated over 2 Lac persons with low vision and blindness across all age groups and economic strata of society. These services are provided free of cost to the people who cannot afford it and are also an integral part of LVPEI’s rural eye care network.
