Vaakya: Special School Launches App For Differently-Abled Children

Noida: Mata Bhagwanti Chadha Niketan, a charitable school based in Noida,  has launched a picture-based mobile application to help speech impaired and differently-abled children in learning through augmentative and alternative communication. The app has been named as 'Vaakya' and this has been launched as part of the 18th foundation day celebration of the school. The application is immensely helpful for persons who are speech impaired, affected by autism, cerebral palsy and various other mental and physical conditions, Director of the school, Vandana Sharma told Press Trust of India. She also said that it is an augmentative and alternative communication tool and can also be used during rehabilitation.

According to the product description, Vaakya is a picture based AAC app designed for people with speech impairments. This may be in the case of aphasia, MND/ALS, after a stroke, in case of vocal cord problems or other speech problems. It is also suitable for Individuals affected by autism, cerebral palsy and various other mental and physical conditions. The app is an AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) tool and can also be used to practice during rehabilitation. Even for individuals with such conditions that are unable to read, it works as an effective tool to communicate as it depends on images and audio instead of text.

With the app, a user can create a combination of custom images and audio which are relate-able to an individual user in order to effectively communicate. For educators, therapists and guardian's, multiple users can be created which can contain images and audio customized to relate to each specific individual.

The app has been made available for free download from Feb 16, Vandana Sharma said.

The Mata Bhagwanti Chadha Niketan is run by the Ponty Chadha Foundation and is for the specially-abled children. The school also launched an e-commerce portal that sells products made by special children.

(With Inputs from PTI)

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