Project

We believe that in the era of technological advancement, everyone should be able to get benefits from it. And also better equipment with more functionality providing more comfort is what makes people happy. Technology till now, has been pretty biased towards disabled people as they are derived from contemporary technology and are stuck with the mainstream one.

Our target group will be the visually impaired and the blind. This target group includes over 285 million people worldwide. Of these visually impaired, 36 million people are fully blind, over 12 million fully blind from India. Of these visually impaired, about 90% of the world's visually impaired live in low-income settings and 72% of people living with blindness are aged 50 and above. We reach them by various channels.

Mobility aiding devices were developed to aid visually impaired in identifying obstacles that they come across while walking. There are mobility aids which can help people with  impaired visual ability. Majorly, visually impaired people use conventional canes for their mobility. The cane or walking stick is the simplest form of mobility aid. Conventional canes are not sufficient in providing the correct surrounding information at an accurate time period, thereby leading to difficulty in the mobility of visually impaired people. The visually impaired user using a conventional cane may use the cane in one direction while the obstacle may be in the other direction, Also, cane may not guide the user about distant obstacles and obstacles that may be above ground level, such as branches of tree which might injure him while walking even if he gets an idea of obstacles at ground level through the conventional cane. So, even with due care while walking, there is always a risk of such a wrong judgment in walking and the user may get misguided regarding the obstacles. This may result in an accident and thus one cannot fully rely on a conventional cane as an aid.

We have access to schools, colleges and institutions serving as residential locations for thousands of blind/visually impaired people across the region, so an active drive should be conducted to identify, register and on-board them as beneficiaries.

A thorough assessment shall be conducted with regards to their needs for accessing assistive devices and only people from under-privileged backgrounds shall be provided the devices free of cost under the program. It is through our network of connected organizations that we intend to build the pipeline for the beneficiary’s lives to be impacted through the distribution of assistive devices.

 After the inspection of the assistive device, we have noticed that it could be the smart cane and make blind people independent in terms of mobility. ‘Saarthi - a mobility assistive device’ for blind people is upgrading the traditional cane in the most affordable way.

Thematic Area

We believe that the project follows the following thematic areas,

1. Health and Hygiene

2. Community Development

3. Sustainable Livelihood

Details of the Product

‘Saarthi - Smart Cane’ is an innovative product which can be used to sense the surroundings by the visually impaired people, which will help them in navigate into their dark world. Saarthi can be attached to the white cane and the user will be able to sense the obstacles through feedback in the form of a buzzing sound and vibrating sensations. A powerful battery and microcontroller have been used to make it more effective and long lasting with the availability of three accurate ranges. The user can use the device with a cane to find directions & obstacles in unfamiliar territories, whilst the device can be used independently in familiar regions for obstacle detection.

Saarthi comes with built-in detection sensors which help the user easily and accurately identify the surroundings for the person using the device. The device gives off a buzz instantaneously, in case it encounters an obstacle at a height above the knee of the person. Ergonomically designed, this device can be mounted on and used along with the traditional white cane as well as without it. It has a powerful battery that lasts up to 30 days, that removes the hassle of charging the product quite often. Made out of robust material, this device has a shelf life of around 5 years. 

The distribution of the assistive aids shall be conducted after a thorough identification & assessment of the needs of behalf of the beneficiaries so that the beneficiaries being enrolled as part of the program are visually impaired and belong to under-privileged backgrounds in order to have maximum impact on the distribution of the assistive devices in their lives.

Our motto is to not only to empower the Disabled community through our solutions, but also make efforts to have a framework wherein they can find employment to have sustainability in their lives as well.

1. When using the device, the number of collisions will be reduced drastically. Over the period of time, the user will feel confident and will explore the surroundings more.
2. The device senses obstacles around them and informs the same to visually impaired people beforehand through vibrations. This can be attached to the normal white cane and can be used in areas which are unfamiliar or new to the user.
3. This device will empower blind people which will increase their mobility and open up new job opportunities for them which will make them strong financially also. We look forward to increasing the income of visually impaired people by 40% in the next five years..

Torchit