Envision and The Hague aim to tackle unemployment among the blind.

One of the greatest challenges that blind and low vision individuals face, as mentioned in one of our previous articles, is finding and maintaining a job. Inaccessible tasks and physical locations hinder companies from hiring visually impaired individuals. Financial independence becomes, hence, another challenge for the blind. Envision seeks to make a change and positively impact the lives of the visually impaired and has, thus, combined its forces with the city of The Hague. But how can Envision provide a solution to this issue?

Envision is an artificial intelligence based software that can extract information from images and speak it out. This technology is used to help blind and low-vision people to access visual information around them independently. Envision helps the visually impaired read all kinds of text, recognise faces, detect objects and so much more.

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Coming one step closer to its future plans, Envision intends to port its software to work with smart glasses that provide users with a hands-free and unobtrusive experience. These glasses can significantly improve employment opportunities for visually impaired individuals who can now do more types of jobs with higher efficiency. This idea was tested with visually impaired users and employers during the Startup In Residence program organised by Impact City, the City of The Hague. To further validate this, a pilot has been set up and this is where Envision needs your help.

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Envision needs ten (10) candidates to participate in this pilot programme. Do you want to join or know someone that is the ideal candidate? Then contact the project manager, Olaf Morel at pilotvisuelebeperking@denhaag.nl.