Vision-Aid’s annual dance productions have become a New England tradition of their own – a remarkable event that the entire community looks forward to with anticipation. This year’s show comes to audiences in a hybrid mode - allowing viewers to choose watching the show in person at a live screening or virtually from the comfort of their homes on July 31st, 2021 at 4 PM US EST, while still preserving the creative, dazzling flavor which have set these shows apart in a category of their own.

While COVID-19 continues to pose challenges, the innovative team leading this year’s effort is finding creative ways to make the show as memorable and vibrant as ever.

The event also aspires to raise much-needed funds for the visually impaired in India – a community which has been especially hard hit by the fallout from the pandemic, at all levels.

For more details of the show, to buy tickets, or to become a sponsor, please visit www.VisionAid.org/event

Amid the searing heat wave in Delhi, which has been in the recent news, a cooler piece of news is that Smart Vision Glasses (SVG) 2.0, the new AI-powered device for the visually impaired made its debut this week in Delhi and is causing some waves. Vision-Aid and its partner SHG Technologies launched Smart Vision Gen 2.0 in Delhi at the Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital (SCEH) in Delhi, on May 17th, at an event which was well attended despite the ongoing heat wave.

National Launch of Smart Vision 2.0 On January 11th, 2022 a major all-India seminar was held on the theme of “Technology-based devices for persons who are visually impaired”. The event was jointly organized by the Aravind Eye Hospital and Vision-Aid and was attended by over 60 participants representing eye hospitals and NGOs from different parts of India. The keynote sessions was presented by Aravind Eye Hospital, L.V. Prasad Eye Inst., Vision-Aid and Smart Health Global Technologies – Vision-Aid’s partner who is bringing the first AI-powered , affordable, India-made Smart glasses to the Indian market. The event covered the role of assistive technology for the visually impaired, with a focus on the new AI-powered smart glasses, and a formal launch of Smart Vision Gen 2.0. Vision-Aid is pleased to share the keynote talks and the full session recordings below.

Smart Vision is a revolutionary, affordable, innovative, made-in-India, AI-powered "Smart Glass", the first of its kind brought to India by Vision-Aid in partnership with SHG Technologies of Bengaluru, in collaboration with Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai and with the financial support of the Palakurthi Foundation of USA.

Short Video Overview of Smart Vision Demo (~30 seconds video):

Smart Vision Testimonials by blind users in pilot (~2.5 minutes)  

Click here to download brochure.

For more information, or to obtain this device, please email: info@visionaid.org 

Touching is believing! For children who are visually impaired, and who have never seen a tree or a star or a science diagram, the world of tactile diagrams and tactile STEM books opens up a whole new universe, using the sense of touch. Vision-Aid is proud to partner with Raised Lines Foundation (RLF) a start-up coming out of IIT-Delhi to provide high quality tactile Braille books to children in blind schools across India replacing traditional Braille books which were lacking diagrams. We are grateful to Meetu & Ram Gupta Foundation of Boston, and several other donors for their generous support for this program.

Vision-Aid invites you to an upcoming graduation ceremony to celebrate the graduation of the visually impaired students who have successfully completed Vision-Aid’s challenging Spoken English Intermediate program. Students have worked closely with Vision-Aid's program team to complete this intensive training program successfully, resulting in significant improvement in their English speaking skills and confidence in communicating clearly.

Vision-Aid and Trees For Life India are joining hands to provide life-changing Smart-phone technology to visually impaired from under-privileged backgrounds. In 2021 , we started with a pilot which covers ten locations, and the results have been phenomenal. About the program Smart phone companies have poured a lot of money to pack smart technology into today's devices and there are many innovative apps (including AI based apps) which can totally transform the life of a blind or visually impaired user. Our dedicated volunteers and team members in US and India have been hard at work, coordinating the logistics of this multi-location rollout.

In 2020, Vision-Aid launched the “Vissa Sahadeva Rao and Kamala Vissa Vision-Aid Center for Digital Accessibility Testing & Training” thanks to support from the family of the generous benefactors. The center has already trained 3 batches of visually impaired students in advanced DAT skills with a an intensive , rigorous 6-month program from the Dequeue University in the US, which offers the leading global certification program for DAT training. All students have successfully been certified by Dequeue and several have gone on to secure jobs in the industry as well as work in-house in the Vision-Aid DAT incubator.

Vision-Aid is delighted to see the impact of the partnership between Vision-Aid India and Perkins India to identify children with Multiple Disabilities and Vision Impairment (MDVI) in Agra, Uttar Pradesh India. Under project IDI , Identification and Intervention, door-to-door screening of 338 children with disabilities was carried out. This work was overseen by the project team of trained special educators and CBR workers from Khandoli block. Many more villages will be targeted in the coming weeks and months.

As we look back at 2021 there are many bright spots to celebrate amid the dark clouds of COVID. One of the brightest spots was - Vision-Aid's Digital Accessibility Testing and Training Center (DATTC). This is one of Vision-Aid's most successful initiatives - Truly a Win-Win-Win-Win for all invovled!

A meet and greet event with the Vision-Aid program at the Agra center was held on 18th Decemeber EST. This ceneter is run by Vision-Aid with the support from Vivek and Vandana Sharma foundation. The Agra center works with the local blinds schools and other organizations in Agra, India to offer a range of services to the visually impaired.

Helen Keller once said, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision”. Doubly blessed are those who have both sight and vision and help to break the barriers to learning for the blind. Ms. Ranga Geetha of Millbury MA is one such visionary. Celebrating her 72nd birthday on 19th November, 2021, in a very special and meaningful way – by making a commitment to help improve the welfare of visually impaired students in a blind school in Madurai, India, by giving them the gift of technology and learning through her support of Vision-Aid’s Project Spring Board. Through her gift, Ms. Ranga Geetha is “adopting” one of the blind schools in Vision-Aid’s “Project Spring Board” network - St. Joseph's Blind School in Madurai, Tamil Nādu.

Vision-Aid has joined hands with Raised Line Foundation (RLF), a startup coming out of IIT-Delhi, to improve access to STEM education with tactile braille books for students with visual impairment. Currently most of the braille books available to blind students do not have diagrams and other rich content which makes science and math education more easily understandable and accessible to blind students.The new initiative introduces much improved, quality of STEM books with tactile diagrams and rich content and helps to level the playing ground for them to compete with their sighted counterparts in regular schools.

Life for people with Visual Impairment in India, has been very challenging during the recent wave of COVID. In consultation with many Vision-Aid partners, stakeholders and beneficiaries, Vision-Aid is announcing a new COVID Response Program for the Visually Impaired. Here are the details. .

The Board of Directors of Vision-Aid, a Lexington, MA-based nonprofit organization, has appointed Puran Dang as Chairman Emeritus, a life-time position, and Veena Handa as Vice Chair of the Advisory Board for a term of five years, in recognition of their contributions to the cause of the visually impaired.

Months and months of hard work by Vision-Aid's students and their dedicated mentors are paying off. Four of Vision-Aid's visually impaired students have successfully cleared the Indian Banking Exam Prelims with flying colors. Two of these students are part of the Palakurthi Center at LVPEI. The other two are from the Maskati Scholarship program. Two students from the Vision-Aid Corporate Skills Development Program have secured jobs in leading private sector companies with competitive salaries.

Vision-Aid scaled new heights in their 2021 annual event this year on August 1st. All prior records were broken. With over 1400 viewers tuning in from all over the US and other countries , a spectacular "Better than Broadway" production staged by an amazing team of talented Producer, Artistic directors and Volunteers Dancers, and generous support from donors, seamless efforts from a large team of volunteers - it all came together beautifully. Vision-Aid is grateful to each and every person who helped to make their annual event be such an amazing, grand success. The support ensures many valuable programs for the visually impaired in the coming year.

June 15, 2021 marks Vision-Aid's 17th birthday. Vision-Aid started its journey 17 years ago, on June 15th, 2004 with its humble beginnings in Vizag with just one small center with 2 rooms

Vision-Aid is delighted to announce the election of its new President, Lalit Sudan who will assume office from July 1, 2021, for a term of five years. He replaces Syed Ali Rizvi who has served as President for the past 7 years and will stay as a Board Member.

The virtual graduation of Vision-Aid students from the Maskati scholarship program in Vizag, was a bright ray of hope and good cheer, in an otherwise very challenging time. Even though several Vision-Aid family members are seriously impacted by COVID, either directly or indirectly, everyone came together to celebrate this joyful, memorable and magical event, which helped us focus on positive things which we can continue to do despite the pandemic. Congratulations to all graduating students, and bravo to all team members who worked so hard despite being affected by the pandemic, for putting togehter this deeply inspiring event.