Bangalore software engineer designs computer software for illiterates

BANGALORE - Indrani Medhi, a software engineer, has designed a software that permits illiterate people to access a computer easily.

Medhi said that a huge section of society remains cut-off from using computers because they have low literacy, even as computing plays a larger role in everyday life.

To make computers more accessible to such section, Medhi designed four applications - job search, mobile money transfer, health information and a map, out of which job search and the money transfer applications, are fully functional.

“Text-free interfaces are designed guidelines for computer-human interfaces for low literate people such that on first interaction with the PC (Personal Computer) or a mobile phone, they are able to realise useful interactions with minimal or no assistance,” said Medhi.

The job search function uses symbols to denote the kind of jobs less literate persons would look for. There is also the availability of voice-based information. The entire application is text free so even completely illiterate persons can use it with minimal or no assistance to find jobs and medical help.

“There are designed principles such as graphics, hand-drawn-style graphics, voice annotation in the local language, help feature, a video which gives you the broader context of the application. A lot of mouse-over functions as it is, so we have done away with text. There’s absolutely no text but there is use of numbers because low literate users are able to read Indo-Arabic numerals,” added Medhi.

Indrani Medhi has been listed on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s tech review publication. She has also been listed as one of 35 Outstanding Innovators in Technology for her work. by Jaipal Sharma (ANI)