Ten Innovators, One Room: Accessible Tech Ideas From the Zero Project Technology Forum

In this episode

Assistive technology innovation from the Zero Project Technology Forum in Mumbai: an audiobook library you reach on any phone, an accessible home pregnancy test app, and AI photo descriptions that know your family by name.

Steven Scott reports from the Zero Project Technology Forum, hosted in Mumbai by the Tech Mahindra Foundation, where ten innovators pitched to around 25 funders and support partners. David Banes, who advises the Zero Project and has 40 years in assistive technology, argues that startups rarely need another year-long incubator. They need a match on the one thing blocking them, whether that is investment, distribution, user testing or protecting intellectual property without the money to patent. He also makes the case for talking about assistive features and functions rather than assistive technology, because procurement still resists paying for mainstream kit that already does the job.

Prashant Ranjan Verma of the National Association for the Blind Delhi presents Shravan, an IVR audiobook library reachable from a feature phone or a landline with no internet and no app. It holds around 4,000 DAISY titles, has 74,000 users, offers voice search and AI-generated news bulletins, and remembers your number so you can pick up where you left off. He also runs Café Beyond Eyes in Delhi, where blind staff handle cooking, serving and billing.

Gopika Kapoor and Moneisha Gandhi explain how their sons’ friendship led to Buddy Up Network, a free community app for disabled people and their caregivers, built around privacy, reporting tools, video verification and women-only groups. Chetan Sharma of the Udbhav Vision Foundation in Jaipur describes an Android app that reads a standard home pregnancy test aloud in private, then connects the user to doctors, pharmacists and follow-up tests.

Picstry AI turns generic photo descriptions into memory descriptions, recognising faces on device so your pictures come back with real names attached. Its founder, an AI scientist who is blind, describes a couple hearing their own wedding photo described for the first time. Neha Soneji of the Tech Mahindra Foundation closes the day with the view from the other side of the room.

Chapters
0:00 – Zero Project Technology Forum comes to Mumbai
0:47 – David Banes on 40 years in assistive tech and what innovators really need
12:03 – Shravan: an audiobook library you reach by phone call
20:37 – Café Beyond Eyes, run by blind staff in Delhi
22:48 – Buddy Up Network, built by two Mumbai mothers
30:44 – An accessible home pregnancy test app from Jaipur
39:58 – Picstry AI: photo descriptions that name your family
49:15 – Neha Soneji on hosting the forum and The Ability Network

Relevant Links
Zero Project Technology Forum: https://zeroproject.org/initiatives/the-zero-project-technology-forum
Equitable AI Alliance: https://zeroproject.org/initiatives/equitable-ai-alliance
Tech Mahindra Foundation: https://techmahindrafoundation.org
National Association for the Blind Delhi: https://www.nabdelhi.in
Buddy Up Network: https://www.buddyup.network
Udbhav Vision Foundation: https://udbhav.org
Picstry AI: https://www.picstry.ai