RoboBraille

Alternate media made easy

Being able to access and use educational material is key to education and learning at all levels. Persons with disabilities such as blindness, low vision, learning disorders, dyslexia, cognitive impairments and motor deficiencies require material in alternate, accessible formats such as audio books, digital large-print and Braille to be able to access and use the material. 

In most cases, such alternate versions of educational material either do not exist or they are difficult, time-consuming and expensive to produce. This means that learners with print disabilities are not provided with educational material (text-books, handouts, presentations, papers, tests) in suitable formats or such materials are not made available in a timely manner. This leads to print disabled learners being significantly disadvantaged compared with their non-disabled peers, a fact (documented by UNESCO, Eurostat and others) that translates directly into higher drop-out rates, lower levels of education and subsequently lower employment frequencies. 

RoboBraille is an innovative solution to the challenge of making educational material and other textual information available in alternate formats whenever and wherever these are needed. RoboBraille is a web-based service that automates the conversion of a wide range of document types into alternate formats such as audio books (including talking math books), digital Braille books, e-books and digital large print. The service can also be used to convert otherwise inaccessible material such as scanned books, pictures of text and PowerPoint presentations into more accessible formats. With the exception of Braille, learners can read material produced by RoboBraille on whatever hardware they may already possess – a smartphone, tablet or computer – using free apps and applications. Braille readers will need a Braille device to render the material in a tactile format. 

RoboBraille is freely available for non-commercial use to all individual learners as well as to educational institutions in the developing world. Educational institutions and other institutional users in the industrialized world fund the service through subscription fees. To avoid confusion, the subscription-based version of RoboBraille is branded SensusAccess. RoboBraille supports all major European languages, many smaller European languages, Arabic, Russian, Greenlandic and a range of Asian languages. RoboBraille comes complete with an e-learning course that teaches in detail how learners, educators and relatives alike can use the service to create alternate versions of educational material.

In addition to addressing the practical issue of making educational material available in suitable alternate formats and thereby improving study conditions for learners with print disabilities, RoboBraille aims to promote independence and self-sufficiency amongst learners with disabilities in order to support inclusion in mainstream educational settings and subsequently on the labor market. 

RoboBraille is developed by Sensus, a Danish consultancy and social entrepreneur specializing in inclusion technology, with the long-term objectives of (1) enhance the quality of education, (2) increasing the completion rates in primary, secondary and tertiary education and (3) raising the employment frequency of those with print disability to improve prosperity for the individual, as well as at community and societal levels.

RoboBraille is innovative, both technologically and sustainability-wise.

Using traditional means, converting documents into alternate formats requires skills, knowledge and expensive software. As the only service of its kind, RoboBraille combines a wide range of advanced technologies, a set of workflows and an intuitive interface, enabling people to convert documents into high-quality alternate formats without being experts and while keeping their privacy. The converted documents are returned within minutes or hours. 

A full-functioning version of RoboBraille is freely available to non-commercial users and institutional users in developing countries. This is funded by subscription fees for institutional use in developed countries.  

As an entirely automated solution provided as software-as-a-service, RoboBraille is composed of a range of advanced technologies (e.g., text-to-speech, text-to-Braille, e-book transformation, OCR processing, office automation, web delivery, email notification, security), software interfaces (e.g., web, email, web API, Learning Tools Interoperability, FTP bulk uploading) and additional services (e.g., e-learning, reporting).

 Although addressing the challenge of providing suitable alternate versions of textbooks and other material in a timely manner to learners with print impairments also involves significant outreach, dissemination and training activities, the vast majority of the RoboBraille Solution is based on technology. 

Increase the number of subscription-based institutional users by 30% in terms of numbers and revenues. 

Enter 2-3 new markets with the RoboBraille service (candidates include Russia, Mexico, Israel, New Zealand).

Explore possibilities of using machine learning technology to improve the abilities to automatically recognize scientific notation in STEM-type material.

Finalize business and sustainability plan to include subscription-based institutional users in non-educational areas (healthcare, social services, public libraries, utilities).

Over the course of the coming 3-5 years, Sensus plans to expand the RoboBraille service in three main areas in order to reach more people and make a greater impact on the educational quality, completion rates and employment prospects of people with print disabilities:

• Add or improve language support to meet the needs of learners in India, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia and Mexico.
• Add or improve conversion capabilities for STEM-type material, music
• Add new conversion capabilities as technologies emerge and mature in areas of language translation, text-to-sign-language, speech recognition

RoboBraille is available through one of many interfaces: Individual users and non-subscribing institutions access the service through the web interface at the service site (www.robobraille.org) or by submitting documents through the email interface. The web interface is currently available in 19 languages.    

Subscribing institutions access the service through customized web interfaces embedded on their own web sites (e.g., in the library services and/or disability services section on the web site of an academic institutions, for an example see https://www.ets.berkeley.edu/services-facilities/assistive-technology/alt-media/sensusaccess-conversion) or through integrations within learning management systems, digital libraries or learning portals. 

The service currently converts some 5,000 documents per day or more than 1,5 mio documents annually. These are submitted by an estimated 45,000 unique users.

Almost 200 institutional users, primarily universities, colleges and university systems, currently subscribe to the service, generating the funding needed to sustain the service.  

RoboBraille is either used as a self-service solution by learners or it is being used as a production tool to produce material on behalf of learners.  

Testimonials from a substantial number of users confirm that RoboBraille has had a profound impact on their ability to complete an education.  

Over the coming 12 months, Sensus expects to double the number of end-users while growing the number of subscribing institutions by 30%. Similar annual growth rates are expected for the coming three years.

 Users will continue to access the service through the service web site, by email or through customized interfaces. Furthermore, Sensus expects to integrate the RoboBraille service with a growing number of educational and non-educational systems, enabling these systems to be able to deliver patient care plans, statements, general business correspondence in alternate formats. 

Sensus employs a highly skilled team of computer scientists, social entrepreneurs, educators and technologists with decades of experience in supporting students with print disabilities and commercial exploitation of technology.

RoboBraille was originally developed to support the needs of visually impaired students integrated in the Danish mainstream educational system. The service was subsequently validated and implemented by Sensus in several European countries before it was introduced in higher education in a collaborative project with Stanford University. The service was also introduced in several African countries.

 Sensus has the technical, managerial, commercial and subject-matter expertise to ensure the further success and impact.

The RoboBraille service is based on a mixed revenue model. Institutional subscribers in industrialized countries pay annual subscription fees to offer the document conversion service to students, clients and others. 

 Individual users and institutional users in developing countries and other countries with low GDP-per-citizen are funded through these subscription fees, as is the general commercialization of RoboBraille. As RoboBraille is based on a highly scalable architecture with sufficient extra capacity, the marginal costs of supporting non-paying users is limited and does not impact the service levels of paying users. 

Funding for localization relating to developing countries and other countries with low GDP-per-citizen is obtained through public and private grants as is funding for advanced research and development activities. 

This revenue model has proven stable and profitable for the past five, and Sensus anticipates to be able fund its organic growth plans for the coming 3-5 years using the same model and available cash reserves. 

We hope that Solve would be able to help resolving a set of core, interrelated challenges:

• Growing our business at a faster rate than is currently possible through organic growth.
• Improving our technology in areas of structure and symbol recognition, likely through the use of machine learning and potentially with researchers at the MIT campus.
• Attracting equity financing to fund especially faster growth but without having to scarify our social mission and freedom to operate. 

Some of the key barriers for RoboBraille to succeed include:

• RoboBraille remains unknown. Getting the word out to potential users that the solution is available and free.
• RoboBraille is seen as a reduction of service. Convincing students, teachers and relatives alike that it is a good idea that students become self-sufficient and independent rather than relying on others to convert their documents. 
• RoboBraille is seen as a threat to employment. Convincing institutional users that resources can be better spent if students learn convert their documents themselves.