10 Reasons Why Annie is the Future of Braille Learning

Making Education Inclusive

Introducing Annie

Annie is the world’s first Braille literacy device. Anyone can learn to read, write, and type in Braille on their own.

Learning Braille Has Not Been Easy… Until NowAnnie solves many difficulties that students typically face while learning Braille.

We’ve highlighted 10 of them.

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1. Self Learning

Self-Learning is critical in areas with lack of resources. For a sighted child, there are many alternative resources to enable self-learning.

‣ For the visually impaired, teaching is one-to-one. With current methods, the presence of a teacher is necessary to learn and self-learning is impossible.

‣ Compared to the number of visually impaired students, there’s a severe shortage of Braille Teachers. When available, special tutors tend to be expensive.

‣ Older students prefer to learn on their own.

Students of any age can learn on

their own.

With Annie

P OW E R E D BY I T S OW N C O M P U T E R

AU D I O G U I D E S YO U T H R O U G H L E S S O N S

2. Practice

A student who misses class or is a slow-learner needs to practice to catch-up. A sighted child can use self-learning resources.

‣ Due to a lack of self-learning methods, a visually impaired student cannot practice on their own.

‣ A student who missed a class or is a slow-learner gets the same amount of teacher-time as the other students. Over time, this gap in knowledge increases and the student falls behind.

‣ As Braille is the script used to teach other subjects as well, Braille learning affects overall learning.

Students can practice and

master Braille on their own.

With Annie

M AS T E R R E A D I N G , W R I T I N G , A N D T Y P I N G A L L I N O N E

U N LO C K A B L E C O N T E N T TO G R OW AT YO U R OW N PAC E

3. Personal Attention

For a class to be efficient, all students need to be engaged for the entire duration. In a sighted class, the teacher uses a blackboard to

do so.

‣ In a class with visually impaired children, the teacher needs to give individual attention to each child for them to learn.

‣ In a 40-minute class of 8 students, each student on average gets only 5 minutes of teacher time. The rest 35 minutes are not as effective.

Teachers can supervise all

students while they’re engaged

for the entire class duration.

With Annie

E A R P H O N E S F O R C L AS S R O O M U SAG E

V I A A N A P P, T H E T E AC H E R CA N

C O N T R O L L E S S O N S A N D E X E R C I S E S E AC H

S T U D E N T CA N D O

4. Instant Feedback

Quick feedback is necessary to ensure a student's effective learning. For a sighted student, errors are highlighted by red ink and these

can be corrected by videos or literate parents.

‣ The feedback cycle for the visually impaired can take very long depending on the availability of one-one teacher time.

‣ In the meantime, the student internalizes the mistakes and it takes longer to correct it.

Students get instant feedback

helping them correct mistakes

immediately.

With Annie

O U T P U T O N B I G A N D S TA N DA R D S I Z E D B R A I L L E C E L L S

V I B R AT I O N A N D AU D I O C U E S TO

I D E N T I F Y M I S TA K E S

F I R S T- O F - I T S - K I N D D I G I TA L B R A I L L E S L AT E R E A D S I N P U T A N D D I S P L AYS O N T H E B R A I L L E D I S P L AY I M M E D I AT E LY

5. Parental Involvement and Teacher Tracking

Effective parental and teacher involvement in student learning is critical. With smart classes, tracking performance of sighted

children is easier.

‣ Sighted parents are usually not involved in their visually impaired children’s education and feel a sense of helplessness.

‣ Manual tracking and evaluation is cumbersome and makes it difficult for teachers to focus on target areas of student performance.

Parents and teachers use the

dashboard to track performance and usage of Annie.

With Annie

E AS I LY C O N S U M A B L E C H A R T S F O R B E T T E R T R AC K I N G

6. Interactive Content

Interactivity ensures that the student learns more effectively. With the dawn of online courses, learning is now interactive for the

sighted.

‣ Braille Books utilize only the sense of touch and audio books use only the sense of hearing.

‣ Braille books and audio books only allow for information consumption and aren't interactive in nature.

Adaptive content on Annie ensures that the Student

interacts continuously with

Annie

With Annie

A N N I E V I B R AT E S A N D I N F O R M S YO U E V E RY T I M E YO U ’ R E R I G H T O R W R O N G

7. Engaging Content

Research suggests that when fun stops, learning often stops as well. To ensure effective learning, the content needs to be engaging.

‣ Learning Braille is difficult and boring. Many students stop learning Braille for this very reason.

‣ The current pedagogy of Braille learning still believes in the rote mechanism of learning.

Students learn via interactive

content such as Braille Games,

Exercises, Stories, songs.

With Annie

GA M E S D E S I G N E D TO I M P R OV E

R E A D I N G , T Y P I N G , A N D W R I T I N G P R O F I C I E N CY

L E A D E R B OA R D TO D R I V E C O M P E T I T I V E L E A R N I N G

8. User-Centric Design

Reading, writing, and typing mechanisms need to be designed for ease of use.

‣ The mechanical brailler is heavy, clunky, and has hard keys that are difficult to press, especially for children.

‣ Using a Braille slate and stylus to emboss on paper can cause wrist injuries among early learners.

Students can press the soft keys without difficulty and

carry the device around with ease.

With Annie

S O F T, S T U R DY, E R G O N O M I C K E YS A N D A S O F T, R E C E P T I V E D I G I TA L S L AT E

T WO L A R G E B R A I L L E C E L L S F O R E A R LY

L E A R N E R S

W E I G H S L E S S T H A N A K I LO G R A M

W R I T I N G , T Y P I N G , A N D R E A D I N G M O D U L E S D E S I G N E D F O R R E A L-WO R L D U SAG E

9. Language Agnostic

There is Braille for just about every language in the world.

‣ Children whose primary language is not the language of instruction in school are more likely to drop out of school or fail in early grades.

‣ Children learn much better in their mother tongue, especially in areas with fewer teachers.

Soft human voice in local tongue

delivers custom learning

experience.

With Annie

M AS T E R R E A D I N G , W R I T I N G , A N D T Y P I N G A L L I N O N E

T E AC H E S M U LT I P L E L A N G UAG E S

10. Additional Features

Weekly knowledge packs delivered online to help increase vocabulary and general knowledge.

Annie works online and offline to ensure smooth functioning even in remote areas.

Access fresh content from across the world. Download new lessons created by experts specifically designed for Annie.

Case Study: Ranchi Deployment

530+ 1200+hours sessions*

In just three months!

*A session is the measure of uninterrupted usage of Annie.

25+average minutes

per session*

Testimonials

"This is a revolutionary device for raising Braille literacy

numbers."

"Thanks to ThinkerBell Labs and District Innovation Fund it is a

meaningful change in the lives of those that need it most."

DR. LOUIS MARANDI MINISTER OF MINORITY AND SOCIAL WELFARE AND WOMEN AND CHILDREN DEVELOPMENT

MR. RAI MAHIMAPAT RAY DISTRICT MAGISTRATE, COLLECTOR &

DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, RANCHI, JHARKHAND

IN PROCESS OF ACCREDITATION

GLOBAL ENTREPRENEUR PROGRAMME

WINNER 2018

WINNER INDIA 2018

WINNER 2016

TOP 2 STARTUPS

BEST SOCIAL INNOVATIONINCUBATED 2016

Awards and Mentions

— A S F E A T U R E D O N —

FELLOWSHIP & MENTORGRANT AWARDED

WINNER 2018

Making Education Inclusive

Use Annie The future of

Braille Learning

partnerships@thinkerbelllabs.com

AMAN SRIVASTAVA +91 957-907-7793

AVINASH KOTHURI +91 956-190-5809