What is the name of your solution?
YAPAYKUY: Social inclusion
Provide a one-line summary of your solution.
YAPAYKUY is an application that facilitates communication and inclusion for people with hearing, verbal and dumb disabilities.
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2018) in the world there are 360 million people with deafness and approximately 9% of that population is in Latin America, which is equivalent to almost 36 million people. The population that suffers from this disability cannot perform adequately in their daily lives because very few people are able to understand and empathize with them, for which they are forced to isolate themselves from society. The problem that this population suffers can be understood simply by covering our ears for a few seconds in a conversation, which will cause us not to be able to understand anything that was said and not have an idea of what to respond to, this problem is suffered daily by people deaf and dumb.
What is your solution?
YAPAYKUY is the first social enterprise born with the aim of eliminating the communication gap, thus managing to communicate deaf and dumb people with hearing people and vice versa. This undertaking supports more than 500,000 deaf people and 200,000 dumb people in Peru, thus allowing the construction of an increasingly inclusive society. Among its functionalities, it stands out that it instantly translates signs into sound, has voice recognition, provides sign language learning (teaches children to read and write), among other functionalities that have been implemented by observing the various difficulties that people with hearing and visual disabilities face every day.
Currently there are applications that provide specific solutions for people with hearing and visual disabilities; however, the user would have to download different applications to fix specific problems. For this reason, our main differential is the integration of different functions that help solve each of the difficulties they face in a practical way. On the other hand, despite integrating several functionalities, the interface is easy to use and understandable, which allows you to adapt more quickly.
Some of the functionalities that the App presents are the following:
- Real time sign language translator and speech to text converter.
- Sound level meter to identify dangers in noisy places.
- Panic button.
- Dictionary to learn sign language for both children with disabilities and family members.
- Pictogram for the pedagogy of this population and its communication.
- Allows video calls with a Peruvian sign language interpreter advisor for job interviews and for inclusion in work.
- Feedback microphone for people with dysphemia or stuttering.
- You can set the tone or mood with which the person wants to convey the message.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Our business model is B2C, since our App is intended for users diagnosed with hearing or verbal disabilities, total or partial muteness, dysphemia, cerebral palsy and some disorders that require support to improve their communication and interrelationships in the family and labor.
How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
Karla Honorio (CEO): Bachelor of Mechatronics Engineering from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. I have carried out projects in electronic, mechanical and programming design software. Interested in areas of maintenance, operations and automation. Throughout these years she has worked on social projects through the application of technology and is willing to face new challenges to contribute to the industry with technological development.
Indira Pereyra: Graduated from the Master's Degree in "Public Health", a specialist in teaching with more than 6 years of experience, which has led her to have a commitment to her students, instilling in them an entrepreneurial sense to solve different deficiencies in the health sector. health that exist in the world.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Build fundamental, resilient, and people-centered health infrastructure that makes essential services, equipment, and medicines more accessible and affordable for communities that are currently underserved;
Where our solution team is headquartered or located:
Lima, PerúOur solution's stage of development:
GrowthHow many people does your solution currently serve?
1000
Why are you applying to Solve?
We believe that Solve will enhance our social commitment to the community by allowing it to be supported as a social enterprise with the aim of reducing communication gaps, providing well-being and security, reinforcing and improving the education of schoolchildren, among others, since being a new enterprise in the market it needs a support that guarantees and attests to its social commitments with communication. Likewise, it will allow us to improve the brand, attract new users who require this product, establish strategic alliances, increase the number of followers so that the enterprise reaches more customers and improve the interface of our App.
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
Business model (e.g. product-market fit, strategy & development)
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
KARLA HONORIO HEREDIA
What makes your solution innovative?
YAPAYKUY is an application whose competitive advantages include two-way communication (understanding between deaf and dumb people and hearing people and vice versa); instant communication, since it manages to translate the sign language used by a deaf or dumb person to show it on the screen and reproduce the sound; interpret the voice to be shown in written form on the screen; safeguard the lives of people with communication difficulties by sending an alert message and the exact location by pressing a panic button when a dangerous situation arises; provide a wide range of topics so that a hearing person can learn sign language and be able to communicate with a deaf or mute person in this language and with its sound level meter function that is capable of warning deaf people of any incident that could arise around him.
What are your impact goals for the next year and the next five years, and how will you achieve them?
Our short-term goals are:
- Increase the number of platform users.
- Evaluate new dissemination channels.
- Establish agreements with telephone companies such as Entel, Claro, Movistar and also with telephone companies so that they can install the free application for all people or that new telephones have Yapaykuy installed.
Our long-term goals are:
- Make our business model sustainable; To do this, we will partner with companies so that they can use our application as a means of communication with people with disabilities.
- Partner with colleges and universities in Peru so that students with hearing and visual disabilities can use this tool to be self-sufficient.
How are you measuring your progress toward your impact goals?
- Number of hearing-impaired patients who use the application
- Number of patients with verbal disabilities who use the application
- Number of patients with mute disabilities who use the application
- Number of people who use the application in your workplace
- Number of companies that use the application with their workers
- Number of strategic alliances established with NGOs and health centers
- Degree of satisfaction with the functionalities of the App
What is your theory of change?
Although there are more than 300 sign languages in the world, our App is based on the international sign language to provide two-way communication, which allows it to adapt to different countries and penetrate easily. In addition, currently in the world the number of deaf people is 72 million and this number is increasing due to various factors such as diseases, which allows a broad market to be satisfied. For this reason, our main objective is to impact the improvement of the quality of life of this neglected population so that, through inclusive technology, they can enhance their interrelationships and achieve greater development opportunities.
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
Regarding the technological level, it uses Data Science and Machine Learning to collect data and prospect for improvements according to the feedback of each user. This inclusive technology allows new functionalities to be adapted or customized according to the satisfaction of the population with disabilities. Likewise, it allows the generation of an interactive map of people with motor, auditory, visual or verbal disabilities, being of assistance assistance for each citizen with disabilities, allowing them to be helped by citizen volunteers and trace marked routes for people with disabilities through GPS. An example of this is that citizen with hearing impairment who currently has difficulties moving around the city, shopping, traveling or any other activity. For this reason, the system allows them to move along routes predicted as the most convenient according to their disability.
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new application of an existing technology
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?
In which countries do you currently operate?
In which countries will you be operating within the next year?
What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
How many people work on your solution team?
5
How long have you been working on your solution?
1 year
What is your approach to incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusivity into your work?
With the application we achieve a great social impact since we have achieved, for example, that a deaf person can maintain fluid communication and understand a speaking person, a mute child is able to express their ideas and be understood, provide material that will allow the learning of the sign language for hearing people, among others. All these innovations make it possible to reduce the communication gap suffered by approximately 700,000 deaf and dumb people in Peru. The enterprise proposes to be an inclusive enterprise because it gives deaf, dumb or deaf-mute people the opportunity to communicate with a person who does not know sign language and be easily understood, thus reducing the communication gap that occurs with the people with these disabilities.
What is your business model?
Our type of business model is B2C, since our App is aimed at users diagnosed with Tinnitus who need to improve their communication and interrelationships in the family and work environment. On the other hand, our monetization strategy would be given by advertising in the application if the mode of use is free and income from the acquisition of our technology by private companies, colleges and universities; Therefore, there will be different types of plans.
The market in the short term is given by patients with hearing and visual disabilities who want to improve their personal relationships and by telephone companies who want to install this App on different devices in their commitment to building an increasingly inclusive society. In the long term, by private companies that include this application to improve their communication with workers who suffer from this disability; as well as, by colleges and universities.
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?
Individual consumers or stakeholders (B2C)What is your plan for becoming financially sustainable?
Although there are more than 300 sign languages in the world, our App is based on international sign language to provide two-way communication, which allows it to adapt to different countries and penetrate easily. In addition, currently in the world the number of deaf people is 72 million and this number is increasing due to various factors such as diseases, which allows a broad market to be satisfied.
Our short-term goals are to increase the number of users of the App, evaluate new distribution channels and establish agreements with telephone companies. In the long term, to make our business model financially sustainable, so we will partner with companies so that they can use our application as a means of communication with their workers; as well as, with colleges and universities nationwide so that students with hearing and visual disabilities can use this tool to become self-sufficient.
Solution Team
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Our Organization
YAPAYKUY