e-Inclusion & Accessibility, Winner 2015

Name of Project:  AttitudeLive.com
Project Website: www.attitudelive.com
Name of Organization: Attitude Live
Organization Website: www.attitudelive.com

World’s largest repository of content for and about PWDs

The Attitude Group of New Zealand is an internationally award-winning multimedia company, a global leader and social agent passionate about promoting opportunity, inclusion and equality. The group is at the forefront of assistive technology and disability information service. Attitude Pictures launched its first documentary series in 2005 on New Zealand national television. Now in its 11th year of production, it has since gone on to produce over 400 documentaries, filmed in more than 25 countries and sold content in over 30 countries. In 2012, the Attitude Group realised it had banked up a wealth of knowledge, which it wanted to share with the world. In September 2013, the Group launched www.attitudelive.com, which is a multimedia platform hosting the world’s largest collection of content for and about people living with disabilities. It has an extensive online library of documentaries, blogs, information, resources and tools. By telling unique and compelling stories, AttitudeLive seeks to empower and enlighten both those with lived experiences of disability as well as the wider community. AttitudeLive is fully accessible with multi-lingual closed captioning, audio descriptions, dyslexic-friendly typography and a fully responsive design for mobiles and tablets. This ensures that people with a range of diverse abilities can access the content. The Web platform not only hosts feature-length documentary content, but also a variety of videos, information, tools, opinion pieces, editorials and other relative content curated from the Web. Through AttitudeLive, the group is shaping views about disability, diversity, inclusion and equality both in New Zealand and across the globe. Our content connects people across 172 countries to high-quality resources and information. There is no other media company dedicated to producing content about chromic health and disability. Therefore, there is no other online portal with the wealth of inspirational and educational content that there is on Attitudelive.

Name of Project:  SmartCane
Project Website: www.smartcane.saksham.org
Name of Organization: Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Organization Website: www.assistech.iitd.ernet.in

New device helps visually impaired detect knee above obstacles

Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, has developed SmartCaneTM, which is a device that helps visually-impaired people to detect all obstacles above the knee level. Developed jointly with Saksham Trust and Phoenix Medical Systems, with funding from the Wellcome Trust (UK), the device uses modern sensor technology to detect obstructions up to a distance of three metres and is compatible with the standard folding white cane currently used by millions of visually-impaired people across the globe. Launched in March 2014, the device detects knee above obstacles, with little or no footprint on the walking path and, thus, facilitates safe mobility – for example, an overhanging tree branch or projecting air-conditioner does not get detected by the white cane and often results in upper body injuries. It permits non-contact detection even for objects with a footprint. This again enhances safety as unwarranted contact with animals is avoided as well as dignity is protected as frequent contact with fellow humans is avoided. The normal white cane has one metre ‘visibility’ which gets extended to nearly three metres with the device. It uses tactile vibratory feedback with four different vibration patterns representing the distance of the obstacles. It is suitable for all existing grips – user doesn’t have to change the grip that he/she is used to for the white cane. Audio beeps indicate charging level as well as self-test results on power on. It is easily detachable to ensure that the device is safe even if the cane breaks. So far, the manufacturer has sold more than 8,000 devices. The device is available to economically weaker sections free of cost under the ADIP scheme of the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, government of India. It has been recently introduced in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Mauritius and Kenya, among others.

Name of Project:  Hunger Heroes and Transformers.
Project Website: www.youngistaanfoundation.org
Name of Organization: Youngistaan Foundation
Organization Website: www.youngistaanfoundation.org

Connecting volunteers willing to help the needy

Launched in January 2014, Youngistaan Foundation is a non-profit volunteer-based organisation that is committed to helping the needy. It has launched several projects for this purpose. The Hunger Heroes project (Feeding Project) aims at winning the trust of people who currently face homelessness by providing them fresh, hot food. Every Sunday, volunteers come together in different cities to cook food for close to 1,000 people. The volunteers also attend to urgent medical needs and encourage their skills and aptitudes with a view to ensuring livelihoods and economic security. While working on the Feeding Project, volunteers met people living on the streets who were ailing, both physically and psychologically. This gave birth to the Transformers – a team of volunteers that fulfils people’s personal hygiene needs and revives their basic dignity. As part of the physical transformation, volunteers provide a space for bathing, a haircut, shave, a change of clothes, and any first-aid if required. As part of the emotional transformation, the volunteers provide empathic counselling and help individuals discover feasible ways for earning a livelihood to securing their future. They return to people, time and again, to see how they are faring. Hunger Heroes and Transformers have tied up with an old age home so that the elderly have a safe place to go to, in case they willingly agree to leave the streets. The organisation has connected close to 700 volunteers who have cooked 50,000 meals of nutritious food till date which has fed 500-1,000 people every week. About 50-100 less privileged are being fed in cities like Bhopal, Delhi, Noida and Mumbai. In the last six months, it has physically transformed about 150 underprivileged on the streets of Hyderabad and a total of 50 individuals have been moved to shelter homes.

Name of Project:  SAFECITY
Project Website: www.safecity.in
Name of Organization: RED DOT FOUNDATION
Organization Website: www.safecity.in

Online platform helps women report eve teasing, violence

Launched in December 2012, Safecity is an online platform that crowd sources personal stories of sexual harassment and abuse in public spaces. This data which may be anonymous, gets aggregated as hot spots on a map indicating trends at a local level. Safecity’s main objectives are to create awareness on sexual harassment and abuse, and get women and other disadvantaged communities to break their silence and report their personal experiences; collate this information to showcase location-based trends; make this information available and useful for individuals, local communities and local administration to solve the problem at the local level. Safecity offers several ways that women/girls can connect with each other on the issue through:

• Crowd map – People can share their stories anonymously by providing details of what happened, where and when the incident took place. This then gets aggregated as hotspots on a map indicating location-based trends. People use the comments section to offer advice or show solidarity.
• Social media – Facebook showcases its work, informs and advocates on current events and it has bloggers contributing a more detailed personal perspective. Twitter is a curated account so that different voices and perspectives can be heard.
• Data from the site – It is used to undertake local campaigns to find neighbourhood solutions e.g. police in Mumbai, Delhi and Goa receive a data file every month on location-based trends. In a suburb in Mumbai, the police changed their beat patrol timings based on Safecity data.
• Workshops – Workshops for different age groups and demographics are used to educate on issues of law and personal rights as well as challenging cultural norms and attitudes. So far, the website has got 2,50,000 unique visitors while 4,500 workshops have been held.