Inclusive education, a significant component of modern education, is innovatively championed amongst the visually impaired by Thinkerbell Labs, a Bangalore, India based company. This educational mission is carried out through their flagship product called Annie. The benevolent goal of this organisation is aimed at teaching its beneficiaries to read, write and type in Braille through touch and sound. The company is keen on building innovative, accessible tech-driven products that address pressing social challenges.

Annie, named after Helen Keller’s teacher, is uniquely positioned as the world’s first Braille self-learning device. Dignitaries such as the Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, have shown keenness on this trail blazing concept of teaching Braille through self-learning technology. The angel promoter is none other than Anand Mahindra himself, the Chairman of Mahindra Group. Furthermore, Prince William and Duchess Kate Middleton appreciated this Indian indigeneity at Mass Challenge UK 2016.

^{Colourful tools all set to train the students}

Annie is the need of the hour as learning Braille is an important step toward helping visually impaired children. There is a need to address approximately 2,00,000 such children across the country. Braille literacy, which is currently at less than 1% in India, is a huge challenge. There is a concrete reason therefore, to create a comprehensive and scalable path to expand Braille literacy in our country.

Thinkerbell Labs is certain that Annie is the ideal learning companion for visually impaired beneficiaries as teaching and learning Braille is a long-drawn process. It can take a young learner up to a full year to complete their Braille training, even under the direct supervision of a teacher. This means that it is extremely difficult for educators to provide the necessary attention to each child in a classroom. It is with the goal of addressing this gap in inclusive education that the company developed Annie, their flagship innovation.

 ^{Easy to attach in any monitor and get going}

Annie isn’t just a learning device but learning becomes fun on Annie when it is packed with games and interactive content. This is how Braille learning is not just about reading, writing and typing in the Braille script, but the organisation has worked on creating a contextually suitable classroom environment too. The company is constantly committed to creating stellar content across several Indian languages. The interface and lessons on Annie eliminate the need for handholding and constant supervision. This empowers teachers to devote their attention to many more students than would usually be possible.

^{A student listening to instructions while learning Braille on Annie}

Partnerships and collaborations with major stakeholders such as blind schools and government departments, help Thinkerbell Labs in expanding their noble commitment. With the accompanying software analytics suite, Helios, teachers can also engage with the way learners are using Annie, track their performance and plan lessons. The organisation keeps improving their product through interactions with learners and educators from time to time.

Thinkerbell Labs co-founders Sanskriti Dawle and Aman Srivastava aimed to take Annie beyond the Braille alphabet song box on a Raspberry Pi that they experimented with as students. Towards this aim, they have proudly enabled training and tools for schools per educators’ needs and set up Annie Smart Classes, where visually impaired learners can have a classroom atmosphere to advance their education with their classmates. “What we aim to achieve with deploying Annie all over the country is to have truly inclusive schools and a truly inclusive society,” says Sanskriti, now CEO of Thinkerbell Labs. “Our vision is to achieve 100% Braille literacy all over India,” she adds.

The first such Braille smart class in India, powered by Thinkerbell Labs, was established in 2018 in Ranchi, Jharkhand. Noting its potential for inclusive education, Dr. Louis Marandi, Jharkhand’s then Minister of Minority and Social Welfare, and Women and Children Development, appreciated Annie as a “revolutionary device.” Mr. Rauvish Kumar, the Principal at RajkiyeNetrahinVidyalay, Ranchi effuses that “the kids are loving it. As teachers, we are able to supervise many kids as they learn at the same time.”

Thinkerbell Labs has since set up several Annie Smart Classes through partnerships with governmental bodies such as District Collectorates in Mahbubnagar and Karimnagar in Telangana, and schools run by the social welfare department in Jashpur district. Forward-thinking schools and resource centers such as the Chantry Private Academy in Luton, England and the Poona School for the Blind Trust in Pune have also made Annie a part of their educational methods.

The company receives strong support by businesses and private philanthropic organizations such as the Tech Mahindra Foundation and the SELCO Foundation in Bangalore, where 98 visually-impaired students are learning Braille on solar-powered Annies. These students have been enthusiastic endorsers of Thinkerbell Labs’ work, spending hundreds of hours on their Annies, and showing heartening progress in learning Braille in English and several Indian languages. There are now 18 such classrooms across India accompanying hundreds of students in their journey of a fuller education, with plans for more.

^{Young student too deep into learning her lesson}

Even as COVID-19 makes times difficult for businesses, Thinkerbell Labs believes that inclusive education will be a pressing need for social development at any time. With Annie itself enabling self-learning, they believe it is an ideal method to learn Braille under the new conditions of limited human interaction, no matter where learners are. They also state that they are working with existing Annie Smart Class partners to ensure they are able to follow hygiene and safety measures within the classroom. In the meantime, the company is working to expand the suite of Annie content and preparing to set up Annie Smart Classes across the country as soon as possible.

With their mission of social good in mind, Thinkerbell Labs is also developing other products such as Chakravyuh, which can be used to monitor the spread of COVID-19 by combining low-cost smartphone-based IR thermometers with AI-driven identification of infected clusters in a certain location. They hope to help governments and businesses function in a safe environment by tracking real-time trends in temperature data and presenting it on a visual dashboard. This dual response to the COVID 19 scenario builds on the company’s strengths as a tech-driven organization, while adhering to the rules and norms aimed to keep their users and employees safe.

While there are other products who look to contribute to the mission of inclusive education, Thinkerbell Labs strongly believes education for the disabled is not simply an afterthought to traditional modes of learning - it is the heart of their mission, and guides their work on inclusive education.

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