SightRead

💡 Inspiration 💡

In many countries around the world, braille is the preferred method of delivering information for people who are blind or partially sighted. Hence, those who aren't fluent in braille are missing out on the important dialogues and experiences from such groups who communicate in braille. This app aims to bridge that gap and increase global fluency in braille, leading to more accessible tools and resources being developed for the blind community.

⚙️ What it does ⚙️

Users can translate text into braille to communicate with the blind and partially sighted. Users can also take photos of braille and translate it into text. Lastly, users can take photos of braille and translate that into spoken English text (i.e. braille-to-speech). All of these features allow users to learn and practice braille, improving their braille literacy and thus strengthening their connectedness with the blind and partially sighted.

🏗️ How we built it 🏗️

We used Swift and SwiftUI to build a user-friendly frontend experience--i.e. a clean, minimal layout with high-contrasting colours so the partially sighted can navigate the app with ease.

The back end is built using Python and uses OpenCV to identify the text and braille within images.

🚩 Challenges we ran into

On the frontend side, one of the major challenges we encountered was making HTTP POST requests to our backend using SWIFT. Unlike certain languages such as JavaScript, the process of calling our backend endpoints on SWIFT proved to be quite time-consuming and required a significant amount of setup. In addition, when working on the backend portion of the app, we encountered several difficulties. One of the biggest challenges we faced was finding APIs for braille to text translation, which was a key feature of our app. Unfortunately, braille is not a popular topic of research and development, and as a result, we found it challenging to locate suitable APIs. Furthermore, we discovered that most of the available APIs were built using outdated technologies and were not optimized for performance. As a result, we had to spend a significant amount of time modifying them before we could implement them in our app.

A minor challenge we ran into was rechanging the UI after an initial implementation with a purple background and green foreground which has poor colour contrast ratio and doesn't pass the WCAG Success Criterion for accessibility. We had to change the foreground to white, thus passing the criterion.

🥇 Accomplishments that we're proud of

The developer of an app that raises awareness about braille and attracts attention to the field of assistive technology for blind people can make a significant impact in a number of ways. Firstly, by increasing public awareness and understanding of braille, the app can help to break down barriers and improve accessibility in various aspects of daily life for blind individuals. Additionally, the app could encourage more developers to become interested in creating assistive technology for blind people, which would lead to more accessible tools and resources being developed for the blind community. Furthermore, the app could provide an accessible and user-friendly tool for non-blind individuals to learn and practice braille, improving their literacy and ability to navigate the world around them. The app could also bring attention to the fact that braille literacy is still a crucial skill for blind people to acquire and maintain, highlighting the importance of continued support and resources for the blind community.

📚 What we learned

As a team, we have learned that creating an app that raises awareness about braille and assistive technology for blind people is a challenging task. From making HTTP POST requests to a backend using SWIFT, which is more difficult than with other languages, to finding APIs for braille translation, which is a less popular topic in research and development and requires significant modification and optimization. Despite these challenges, we believe that the positive impact our app can have on the blind community by breaking down barriers, providing an accessible and user-friendly tool for non-blind individuals to learn and practice braille, and highlighting the importance of continued support and resources for the blind community.