Mocked for choosing mathematics in her childhood and discouraged by several institutions and teachers against pursuing science, with a ‘caution’ that it would be too difficult for her, visually-impaired entrepreneur Vidhya Y dared to dream big. She defied all odds to not just bag gold medals in her Masters, but is today leading other visually-challenged people to taste success, through effective learning in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses.
Vidhya, along with Supriya Dey, an IT professional who was into research at IIIT-B; and Amit Prakash, a professor at the institute, founded Vision Empower (VE), a not-for-profit organisation that has designed an accessible learning management platform to promote experiential learning of STEM subjects, computational training, digital literacy, and early childhood programmes.
Its technology arm ‘Vembi Technologies’ has also developed the world’s most affordable Braille book reading solution for children called ‘Hexis-Antara’.
nie