Annie, a Thinkerbell Labs product, has partnered with several national and international government agencies, providing self-learning devices to visually impaired students.

The start-up was recently invited to be a part of The Raisina Dialogue, hosted by Observer Research Foundation in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. Thinkerbell was the only winner of the National Start-up Awards 2021 to be invited as a speaker to launch the Handholding Support of National Start-up Awards 2021 organised by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

“Innovation in the special ed space has been rather stagnant in the last decade or so. Forget about keeping pace with the new ed-tech solutions; the present learning methods of education used for students with visual impairment are archaic, inefficient, and require constant human intervention and supervision. With Annie, we aim to eliminate all of that and give learners who are visually impaired a chance to learn comfortably, interactively, and independently,” Sanskriti Dawle, CEO of Thinkerbell Labs, said,

Currently, Thinkerbell Labs has more than 500 Annie devices installed in over 50 smart classes across 16 states in the country. The start-up has tied up with several district and state governments including Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra to provide self-learning, gamified, and interactive device for children with visual impairment.

The NITI Aayog has also recommended the start-up’s solution Annie Smart Class as an intervention for replication to Aspirational Districts and the Ministry of Social Justice.

We are grateful for the constant support and recognition that the Government of India has given us. It is with the help and intervention of governmental agencies that social impact innovations like Annie will ensure inclusive and holistic learning,” Dawle added.

Annie is the world’s first tech-enabled braille literacy solution by Thinkerbell Labs that has received many accolades and recognition post its Shark Tank success. The start-up has bagged the National Start-up Award 2021 in the Access to Institutional Education Category which was announced this year.

With inputs from PTI.

Read also: Indian students happy to be back on campus, reveals Global Student Survey 2022