Jellow Communicator India app secures innovation funding from UNICEF

Shruti Gupta is using her experiences coping with disability to change the lives of others who are deaf.

The third-year undergraduate technology student has created an app called Jellow Communicator India to help other children who struggle with speech impairment. Jellow, which has been downloaded by over 1,800 people so far, uses images and symbols to help children improve their communication and speech development.

Gupta says that after going through the agony of hearing loss herself, she was determined to help many other children who needed this help.

Now Gupta’s partner, Ninaad Digital Technology, has got innovation funding through UNICEF for the app. It took 19 months to create under the app under the guidance of professors at the Industrial Design Centre at IIT, Bombay.

Hearing influences a child’s development of language skills in a major way and therefore it is important to intervene as early as possible. It also affects key understanding skills as we hear mainly through the brain.

Experts say there is a need for better data management and universal hearing tests for newborn children.

The situation is especially bad in the villages where there is a major lack of awareness about hearing loss and how to deal with it.