Upskilling people with complete blindness
with professional coding skills for the digital economy to reduce the
Disability Opportunity Gap
[2] Gross National Income (India) loss due to Blindness
Rs. 4.9Bn (1997) to 7.6Bn (2020)
[3] Economic cost in India due to lost productive years from blindness
(40 working years) USD 158 Billion
[1] 70% of the blind people in the employable
age group, globally are unemployed
But, What if they can code?
The possibilities and opportunities are limitless
For Blind users
Access fastest growing digital economy jobs
(AI, Cybersecurity, IoT, BDA, Blockchain) [4]
Access to mainstream
STEM Education and other further opportunities
Overcome accessibility challenges during commute, work from home
For Employers
Lower turnover rate
Edge in business performance
Access to traditionally marginalized talent pool
Higher ROI in training and development [6]
What is stopping them?
The only computer accessibility technology available to people with visual impairments are screen readers and refreshable braille displays. While they are great to read an e-book, write a document or browse the internet, but it is really frustrating to code
They read content linearly.
Comprehending code is like reviewing a book. Sighted people can skim through a book to understand its content. With screen readers and braille displays this is nearly impossible. One has to read through word by word, line by line.
Imagine having to read through thousands of lines of code at a time, to first understand the contents of the code and then debug it !
References
[1] WHO, 2019
[2] Right to Sight, Vision, 2020
[3] Cost Benefit of Eye Health, 2020
[4] Future Skilling Report, NASSCOM, 2020
[5] Forbes, 2021
[6] Nature, 2021