Innovative Technologies and Opportunities for the Visually Challenged: A Case Study ofAcademia-Industry Collaboration in Gujarat

Abstract

The present paper examines the dynamics of academia-industry collaboration in the Indian context in relation to the development of innovative technologies for visually challenged persons. Through a detailed description of the history and dynamics of a collaborative innovative effort between the Central University of Gujarat and a Baroda-based firm, to produce an instrument, the Visionmeter, the paper discusses how the collaboration is particularly significant since the instrument facilitates the entry and employment of visually- challenged persons into fields like quality control and quality formulation, fields that were hitherto inaccessible to them. The case study is also noteworthy since it offers an alternative and possibly viable model of indigenous innovation for the empowerment of visually challenged persons in the absence of adequate government subsidies and funding for their entry into 'wet' laboratory sciences in India. Keywords-Innovation, Visually challenged, Collaboration, Academia-Industry, Quality I. Introduction The present paper seeks to examine the dynamics of academia-industry collaboration in the Indian context in relation to the development of innovative technologies for visually challenged persons. Policy-wise, the emphasis on a model of charity rather than a model of social empowerment, has translated in terms of state apathy and minimal thrust on funding in relation to higher education and related employment opportunities for these individuals. Given this situation, the enrollment of these individuals into Science related streams and their employment in these fields, particularly the 'wet' laboratory sciences, has been typically miniscule and in certain cases, virtually non-existent. The present case study, involving a collaborative innovative effort between the Central University of Gujarat and a Baroda-based firm, to produce an instrument, the Visionmeter, is particularly significant since the instrument facilitates the entry and employment of visually-challenged persons into fields like quality control and quality formulation, fields that were hitherto inaccessible to them. The present case study is also noteworthy since it offers an alternative and possibly viable model of indigenous innovation for the empowerment of visually challenged persons, in the absence of adequate government subsidies and funding for their entry into 'wet' laboratory sciences. The paper has been structured in the following manner. The paper begins with a brief profile of visually disabled persons in the Indian context, in addition to the policy related challenges for their empowerment. It then attempts to examine the present case study through a synthesis of perspectives obtained from the larger corpus of Science, Technology and Society (STS) studies and Sociology of Health. The following section provides a brief description of the methodology deployed for the present paper. This is followed by a detailed examination of the 'Visionmeter' project. The subsequent section discusses the significance of the collaborative effort between the Central University of Gujarat and the Baroda-based firm, Analab, in the context of empowerment of visually challenged persons and their entry into the laboratory sciences and related professions and arenas in the public and private sectors in India. The last section outlines the concluding remarks of the paper. II. Contextualizing Disability Management In India Disability is a term, often difficult to define and operationalize, due to ideological aspects, cultural settings and varied use. Its generic feature, however, is a person's difficulty in performing a particular task or activity due to an underlying physical or mental disorder. (Albrecht and Verbrugge 2000: 293). The disabled constitute around 1.85 crore persons of the total population in India. Out of every one lakh persons, around 269 persons are found to be visually disabled. The rate of visual disabilities among rural persons has also been found to be considerably higher than among urban persons. Regarding the age for onset of visual disability, it manifests itself during the early years of a person's life apart from old age. As far as the actualization of the 86 th