Developing a Go-To market strategy for TouchVision

Abstract

Assistive technology as defined by the United States Assistive Technology Act, 1998 is: “product, device, or equipment, whether acquired commercially, modified or customized, that is used to maintain, increase, or improve the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.” India with the largest population of visually impaired citizens still has a long way to go and assistive technology remains an unexplored and underserved area. The Government has enacted Persons with Disability (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995, which provides for education, employment, creation of barrier free environment, social security, etc1 and has established the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment that has been entrusted along with other auxiliary ministries to make affordable solution available in the public domain to boost their inclusion in the mainstream workforce and society. Anaavaran Technologies, based out of India has invented a pioneering device for the visually impaired. The device aptly names TouchVision aims to integrate visually impaired children in mainstream education by helping them understand books even before learning Braille. It aims has lowered the barriers to inclusion of these children in a normal classroom setting by providing accessibility, availability of educational content that they can learn from themselves without any special assistance. The scarcity of educators sensitized to special needs of visually impaired students and the lack of affordability of assistive devices are recognized as the major barriers to inclusive education. They have also filed a patent for their device that has a multimodal interaction system and method for visually impaired (Figure 1). The idea for TouchVision was conceptualized for a post graduate program research project at IIT Delhi. The research and developmental arm are supported by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology through the Center of Excellence in Tactile Graphics (COETG) initiative2, headed by Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad. TouchVision is a brainchild of Ms. Ankita Gulati who was a student at IIT Delhi, and while pursuing her Masters, she wanted to work for the differently-abled, and after 6 months of market research she came up with the idea for TouchVision. However, it was only after 2 years of relentless experimentation that she has launched the product. The idea has received many accolades like the 3M CII Innovators Challenge, Gandhian Young Technological Innovator Award from President of India3. She has also partnered with Assistive Technology Group (Assitech) based out of IIT Delhi, who are a group of faculty members from diverse functional backgrounds that work together to achieve innovative solutions for visually impaired citizens our society4. They are currently exploring the possibility of making their own books, venturing in the gaming and story books. The aim of this project is to develop a Go To Market strategy for TouchVision for a pan-India launch.We have analysed the industry,explored the need gap that the product is serving. Furthermore, we assessed the product market fit and explored the right customer segments for maximising the value proposition.