Sense

Sense logo

Rationale

With 18.5 million people worldwide that have disabilities affecting how they see, hear, and speak, it’s a wonder how support for the disabled community is evidently lacking.

Despite existing government aid, a lot of people still cannot access support because they’re not “disabled enough”, even if in the Philippines, almost half of our population has “moderate disability” while only some 12% have it severe.

Even if they had access to support, these resources may be difficult to use if one becomes disabled at a later point in life and is unfamiliar with these things, despite the rate of disability increasing with age.

While there exists support for the disabled, these resources are insufficient and leave out those who aren’t “disabled enough” in terms of degree and in terms of timespan.

The world perceives disability as a binary, when it’s actually a spectrum. This has translated into the assistance available for the disabled being difficult to access.

For the disabled community, our insensitivity has translated into inaccessibility.

This is how Sense came to be as the support sensible and sensitive towards the special needs of any and all kinds of sensory impairments.

What it does

Sense is an assistive mobile application that supplies sensible and sensitive support to those with sensory impairments. It involves a combination of assistive technologies for sight, hearing, and speech.

For one, Sense can support your vision by dictating your surroundings and alerting you of nearby obstructions through a camera with LiDAR technology. Besides that, it can assist your hearing by translating voices into subtitles and automatic speech recognition. Furthermore, it can assist with your speech impediments through machine translation and speech synthesis.

Sense equally employs external app integration to help you navigate the digital space with dictation features, navigation support via speech, and subtitles on your very screen. Sense can also be used by people without disabilities so as to promote inclusivity in our daily interactions with them in the world.

Overall, it is an app sensible in function and sensitive to your special needs no matter what form they take and what point in life they affect you.

How we built it

We started off by conducting UX research to dictate our app’s human-centered direction, keeping design thinking principles in mind.

With brainstorming using affinity diagrams, crafting a user persona, and mapping a user journey, we delved into the ideation process to conceptualize our application that helps address the inaccessibility of assistive technology for those with sensory impairments unrecognized for their special needs.

Finally, we utilized a multidisciplinary approach to mobile app development prototyping with graphic design and UX/UI design on Figma.

Challenges we ran into

Like all innovations, Sense overcame many initial challenges throughout its conceptualization.

We first struggled actualizing a mobile application that offers unique services with so many redundant assistive apps available for disabled people today. Moreover, we deliberated on how to create the user interface and features accessible for anyone, regardless of sensory impairment.

Nevertheless, Sense ultimately recognizes its purpose as an app that acknowledges disability as a spectrum and as something a person can acquire unexpectedly, making it harder for them to adjust to.

What we learned

Like all innovations, Sense overcame many initial challenges throughout its conceptualization.

Nevertheless, Sense ultimately recognizes its purpose as an app that acknowledges disability as a spectrum and as something a person can acquire unexpectedly, making it harder for them to adjust to.

What's next for Sense

After the completion of its development, Sense will extend its seamless integration in devices to school environments and workplaces globally. For example, the app can be integrated into workspace policy companies can utilize to foster a more inclusive work culture. In this way, the app can enable disabled individuals to live less inconvenient lives as they continue participating in society. Sense equally aims to expand its features to offer a community page, where users can review establishments and institutions based on their disability inclusivity.

All disabled people have the right to live independent and dignified life within society. We want to reinforce this notion and strengthen the relevance and accessibility of assistive technology around the world for those who are not considered “disabled” enough. Sense is the true sensible and sensitive stepping stone towards that direction.