Ability Forum

[srividyaa]

Big Vision
BarrierBreak founder Shilpi Kapoor wants to bring the disabled into the mainstream.

•Mission To break the barriers of disability through the use of assistive technology. The aim is to create an inclusive society where there is equal opportunity for access to employment, education and social life.
•Benefits From visually impaired to autistic and physically challenged, everyone can use BarrierBreak’s cost-effective technologies to work like other professionals.

In 1995, systems engineer Shilpi Kapoor worked for an American technology giant, communicating with her US-based boss either on email or telephone. Nothing unusual about that, except Kapoor’s supervisor was a paraplegic, paralysed from the neck down, and used a sip-and-puff device—an assistive computer technology that allows users to move the mouse cursor by puffing air into a tube. Kapoor and the American had worked together for nearly two years before she found out. It was her first close interaction with a disabled person and his get-on-with-business approach made a powerful impression. “He suggested I work on innovative ideas for helping the disabled—and that’s what I did,” says Kapoor. Kapoor’s start-up, BarrierBreak Technologies, provides assistive and accessibility technologies for the disabled.

All Seeing

A for-profit company was, however, far from her mind when Kapoor began her work with the disabled. She started small, spending Rs 1.2 lakh of family contributions on a computer and screen reader software that set her back by Rs 55,000. The screen reader software helps the visually impaired navigate screen contents using voice-assistance. Kapoor began by teaching two blind boys basic computer skills; more joined as word got out. Meanwhile, the day job continued.

In 1999, she set up a computer training centre in the Bombay University campus, starting with two batches of five each. Only to find there were no takers for blind computer-literate people. “The general perception was that the blind are fit only to be telephone operators. We, therefore, had to make money and create resources to be able to hire and pay the trained people,” she says.
     

To get around the problem, in 2004, Kapoor set up Net Systems Informatics (N-Syst), which offered content solutions for educational institutes, publishers and technology solution providers. Getting clients was nearly impossible, since Kapoor had “no employees and no money”. Then, while chasing an order, she made a prototype for a computer training course for schoolchildren, applying the same methods she used to teach blind students. It clicked and the orders started coming in. “There was no looking back after that,” she says. N-Syst made profits last year (Kapoor doesn’t disclose numbers).

The money problems taken care of, Kapoor turned back to her area of interest—softwares and applications that help provide Web access to the disabled. While she started offering many services under Net Systems beginning 2004, a separate subsidiary BarrierBreak was created in 2007 to distinguish the work being done for the disabled and generate awareness about assistive technologies. BarrierBreak also uses the pool of its differently-abled professionals to test services and products of other companies.

Most of the 60 people on BarrierBreak’s rolls are disabled. Thirty-four-year old Priti Rohra heads the accessibility testing practice. “It’s great to be gainfully employed—people look at you differently when you have a job. I wanted to be in the IT space and trained at the Indian Association for the Visually Handicapped,” says the congenitally blind Rohra, who’s been with the company seven years. Incidentally, the course she attended was designed by Kapoor along with the Bill Gates Foundation, which funded the programme.

The journey thus far has been far from easy, but Kapoor credits a few lucky breaks that made the difference to the company’s fortunes. In the middle of a rough patch in 2004, her company was approached by Vision Australia, a not-for-profit organisation providing services, facilities and information to the visually impaired, to create disabled-friendly websites. The assignment gave the company a chance to work for the Australian IT market and the government. “From there on, the course of the journey changed. They introduced us to other global institutes, like the Royal International Institute of Blind People in the UK. They, in turn, introduced us to a Swedish company and we became visible globally,” says Kapoor.

A year later, Kapoor tapped Aavishkaar Micro Venture Fund, a social rural venture capital fund, for money. “They bought into the idea of ‘accessibility’ and invested in us. It gave us confidence that we were right in our beliefs,” says Kapoor.


Disabled-Friendly: BarrierBreak is trying to develop products that can help the disabled use computers comfortably.

Making Them Self-Reliant

BarrierBreak’s work is geared toward a single goal—bringing the disabled into the mainstream. That means enabling them to be as self-reliant as possible. A recent innovation is a self check-in Indian Railways kiosk for the disabled. There’s also the web portal for the Right to Information Act—one of the first Indian websites that’s easily accessible to the disabled. Thus far, BarrierBreak has worked on seven websites for the Indian government—no mean achievement, considering the general lack of awareness regarding disabled access. Internationally, it is mandatory to make disabled-friendly websites, but not in India.

The company has also developed disabled-friendly websites for private organisations. The website of the Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for Hearing Handicapped was created by BarrierBreak. It gets 400 hits a day, more than half from overseas locations. The institute’s director Dr R Rangasayee says Kapoor walks the extra mile in understanding the dynamics of each disability and applies the right IT solutions. “Our website can be accessed not only by people with vision-related problems, but also by those who are slow learners or have cognitive deficits,” adds Rangasayee.

  
  
Websites are only a small part of Kapoor’s work. Where the company really touches the lives of the disabled is with assistive technology products. Computer aids such as screen readers, adaptive keyboards, alternate format conversion (that convert print publications to full audio text, image description and conversion of math content) and desktop magnifiers aren’t new, but they are expensive.

BarrierBreak tackled that by creating a network to sell the products. The company imports 90% of the products directly from manufacturers like Dolphin Computer Associates, Optelec, Ablenet and Attainment Co, and sells them locally, eliminating a long chain of middlemen. “In 1995, I forked out Rs 55,000 for a screen reader. Today, we sell them for Rs 18,000 to NGOs or other organisations and for Rs 9,000 to individuals with disabilities,” says Kapoor.

It isn’t only imports. BarrierBreak also works with disabled people and organisations supporting them to develop products that can help them use computers more efficiently.

Ketan Kothari, a blind disability activist working as a programme officer at NGO SightSavers, uses a Dolphin pen, developed by BarrierBreak and SightSavers. It is a lightweight pen-drive with a screen magnifier, a screen reader and Braille support.

With this, blind and low-vision computer users can carry their assistive software on a pen-drive and use it on any PC. “The text on the screen is converted to voice and is magnified for those with low vision. It’s great,” says Kothri.

A Symbiotic Relationship

For a long time, BarrierBreak was dependent on its parent for survival. N-Syst earned 90% of the group’s revenues because it bagged IT projects that involved content-writing. Then the economic downturn played spoilsport and many companies cancelled their contracts. “At that time, our accessibility services sustained our business model. Otherwise, we would not have existed today. None of BarrierBreak’s contracts were cancelled and it has made profits for the first time now,” Kapoor says.

BarrierBreak’s biggest and best clients are overseas. Ironically, the company founded in India and run by Indians remained largely unknown at home. The desire to serve the Indian market better led Kapoor to organise India’s first international conference on accessibility and assistive technology in 2008. “We got 50 international delegates to present papers at the conference. It was attended by government officials, IT sector representatives, NGOs and disabled people,” says Kapoor. But she is still waiting for the day when products and services in the domestic market will account for the lion’s share of BarrierBreak’s business.

Kapoor blames the slow growth of accessibility and assistive services in the country on lack of awareness. People need to change their attitudes, she says. While a beginning has been made, the major change required, says Kapoor, is in mindset. “NGOs need to become quality-conscious. The private sector has to move from corporate social responsibility and play a more proactive role in driving accessibility services. NGOs should find more ways to sell and go-to-market rather than surviving on charity and donations.”
Source: http://business.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?266800

Big Vision
BarrierBreak founder Shilpi Kapoor wants to bring the disabled into the mainstream.

•Mission To break the barriers of disability through the use of assistive technology. The aim is to create an inclusive society where there is equal opportunity for access to employment, education and social life.
•Benefits From visually impaired to autistic and physically challenged, everyone can use BarrierBreak’s cost-effective technologies to work like other professionals.

In 1995, systems engineer Shilpi Kapoor worked for an American technology giant, communicating with her US-based boss either on email or telephone. Nothing unusual about that, except Kapoor’s supervisor was a paraplegic, paralysed from the neck down, and used a sip-and-puff device—an assistive computer technology that allows users to move the mouse cursor by puffing air into a tube. Kapoor and the American had worked together for nearly two years before she found out. It was her first close interaction with a disabled person and his get-on-with-business approach made a powerful impression. “He suggested I work on innovative ideas for helping the disabled—and that’s what I did,” says Kapoor. Kapoor’s start-up, BarrierBreak Technologies, provides assistive and accessibility technologies for the disabled.

All Seeing

A for-profit company was, however, far from her mind when Kapoor began her work with the disabled. She started small, spending Rs 1.2 lakh of family contributions on a computer and screen reader software that set her back by Rs 55,000. The screen reader software helps the visually impaired navigate screen contents using voice-assistance. Kapoor began by teaching two blind boys basic computer skills; more joined as word got out. Meanwhile, the day job continued.

In 1999, she set up a computer training centre in the Bombay University campus, starting with two batches of five each. Only to find there were no takers for blind computer-literate people. “The general perception was that the blind are fit only to be telephone operators. We, therefore, had to make money and create resources to be able to hire and pay the trained people,” she says.
     

To get around the problem, in 2004, Kapoor set up Net Systems Informatics (N-Syst), which offered content solutions for educational institutes, publishers and technology solution providers. Getting clients was nearly impossible, since Kapoor had “no employees and no money”. Then, while chasing an order, she made a prototype for a computer training course for schoolchildren, applying the same methods she used to teach blind students. It clicked and the orders started coming in. “There was no looking back after that,” she says. N-Syst made profits last year (Kapoor doesn’t disclose numbers).

The money problems taken care of, Kapoor turned back to her area of interest—softwares and applications that help provide Web access to the disabled. While she started offering many services under Net Systems beginning 2004, a separate subsidiary BarrierBreak was created in 2007 to distinguish the work being done for the disabled and generate awareness about assistive technologies. BarrierBreak also uses the pool of its differently-abled professionals to test services and products of other companies.

Most of the 60 people on BarrierBreak’s rolls are disabled. Thirty-four-year old Priti Rohra heads the accessibility testing practice. “It’s great to be gainfully employed—people look at you differently when you have a job. I wanted to be in the IT space and trained at the Indian Association for the Visually Handicapped,” says the congenitally blind Rohra, who’s been with the company seven years. Incidentally, the course she attended was designed by Kapoor along with the Bill Gates Foundation, which funded the programme.

The journey thus far has been far from easy, but Kapoor credits a few lucky breaks that made the difference to the company’s fortunes. In the middle of a rough patch in 2004, her company was approached by Vision Australia, a not-for-profit organisation providing services, facilities and information to the visually impaired, to create disabled-friendly websites. The assignment gave the company a chance to work for the Australian IT market and the government. “From there on, the course of the journey changed. They introduced us to other global institutes, like the Royal International Institute of Blind People in the UK. They, in turn, introduced us to a Swedish company and we became visible globally,” says Kapoor.

A year later, Kapoor tapped Aavishkaar Micro Venture Fund, a social rural venture capital fund, for money. “They bought into the idea of ‘accessibility’ and invested in us. It gave us confidence that we were right in our beliefs,” says Kapoor.


Disabled-Friendly: BarrierBreak is trying to develop products that can help the disabled use computers comfortably.

Making Them Self-Reliant

BarrierBreak’s work is geared toward a single goal—bringing the disabled into the mainstream. That means enabling them to be as self-reliant as possible. A recent innovation is a self check-in Indian Railways kiosk for the disabled. There’s also the web portal for the Right to Information Act—one of the first Indian websites that’s easily accessible to the disabled. Thus far, BarrierBreak has worked on seven websites for the Indian government—no mean achievement, considering the general lack of awareness regarding disabled access. Internationally, it is mandatory to make disabled-friendly websites, but not in India.

The company has also developed disabled-friendly websites for private organisations. The website of the Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for Hearing Handicapped was created by BarrierBreak. It gets 400 hits a day, more than half from overseas locations. The institute’s director Dr R Rangasayee says Kapoor walks the extra mile in understanding the dynamics of each disability and applies the right IT solutions. “Our website can be accessed not only by people with vision-related problems, but also by those who are slow learners or have cognitive deficits,” adds Rangasayee.

  
  
Websites are only a small part of Kapoor’s work. Where the company really touches the lives of the disabled is with assistive technology products. Computer aids such as screen readers, adaptive keyboards, alternate format conversion (that convert print publications to full audio text, image description and conversion of math content) and desktop magnifiers aren’t new, but they are expensive.

BarrierBreak tackled that by creating a network to sell the products. The company imports 90% of the products directly from manufacturers like Dolphin Computer Associates, Optelec, Ablenet and Attainment Co, and sells them locally, eliminating a long chain of middlemen. “In 1995, I forked out Rs 55,000 for a screen reader. Today, we sell them for Rs 18,000 to NGOs or other organisations and for Rs 9,000 to individuals with disabilities,” says Kapoor.

It isn’t only imports. BarrierBreak also works with disabled people and organisations supporting them to develop products that can help them use computers more efficiently.

Ketan Kothari, a blind disability activist working as a programme officer at NGO SightSavers, uses a Dolphin pen, developed by BarrierBreak and SightSavers. It is a lightweight pen-drive with a screen magnifier, a screen reader and Braille support.

With this, blind and low-vision computer users can carry their assistive software on a pen-drive and use it on any PC. “The text on the screen is converted to voice and is magnified for those with low vision. It’s great,” says Kothri.

A Symbiotic Relationship

For a long time, BarrierBreak was dependent on its parent for survival. N-Syst earned 90% of the group’s revenues because it bagged IT projects that involved content-writing. Then the economic downturn played spoilsport and many companies cancelled their contracts. “At that time, our accessibility services sustained our business model. Otherwise, we would not have existed today. None of BarrierBreak’s contracts were cancelled and it has made profits for the first time now,” Kapoor says.

BarrierBreak’s biggest and best clients are overseas. Ironically, the company founded in India and run by Indians remained largely unknown at home. The desire to serve the Indian market better led Kapoor to organise India’s first international conference on accessibility and assistive technology in 2008. “We got 50 international delegates to present papers at the conference. It was attended by government officials, IT sector representatives, NGOs and disabled people,” says Kapoor. But she is still waiting for the day when products and services in the domestic market will account for the lion’s share of BarrierBreak’s business.

Kapoor blames the slow growth of accessibility and assistive services in the country on lack of awareness. People need to change their attitudes, she says. While a beginning has been made, the major change required, says Kapoor, is in mindset. “NGOs need to become quality-conscious. The private sector has to move from corporate social responsibility and play a more proactive role in driving accessibility services. NGOs should find more ways to sell and go-to-market rather than surviving on charity and donations.”
Source: http://business.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?266800

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