BRIEF

Communication technology has progressed from text and speech to images and video chats. Not so for the deafblind. They only communicate through Braille or physical taps – which people with normal vision and hearing do not understand.

Can Samsung India, with its purpose to create human-driven innovations, change this? And bring 500,000+ deafblind into the same chat window as the rest of India?

INSIGHT

Due to the difficulty in communicating, deafblind are 10 times less likely to be employed than others and deafblind children are 17 times less likely to be in school. Families with deafblind people are mostly in the bottom 40% of the socio-economic strata. Around 84% of deafblind in India do not receive any form of specialist support. And there are over 500,000 in India alone.

And huge problem is that people with normal vision and hearing do not understand the ISL (Indian Sign Language), and this becomes the biggest hurdle in two-way communication between the 'abled' and the deafblind.

IDEA

Samsung Good Vibes is a new form of smartphone communication that has two interfaces: one regular, and the other for the deafblind. It translates voice / text messages into Morse Code vibrations, and vice versa.

It was clear that to bring about a change, the strategy was to reach people with normal vision and hearing. That way, also spread awareness about the initiative so that the solution is adopted quickly.

EXECUTION

Samsung Good Vibes is a new form of smartphone communication that has two interfaces: one regular, and the other for the deafblind. The regular interface, for a person with normal vision and hearing, translates voice/text messages into haptic responses in Morse Code for the deafblind to interpret. And the deafblind interface, for a person with no vision and hearing—is designed to have an 'invisible' UI. This lets them respond through the unique tactile Morse Code input that translates the message into and voice/text messages.

SCALE

Within a month, the app was downloaded by 20,812 deafblind people and their families, far exceeding the target of 7800 downloads in 3 months.

RESULTS

Within a month, the app was downloaded by 20,812 deafblind people and their families, far exceeding the target of 7800 downloads in 3 months. The launch was supported by a powerful digital film, with more than 205M views. More than 1.71M engagements (likes, shares, comments) came in from the digital sphere and over 35.5K conversations took place about the initiative.

Away from numbers, the app is supporting a number of deafblind youth to fearlessly step out of their homes, away from their safe zones, to receive mainstream education, to pursue career options and live their lives as independently as every other person. It is delivering on the promise of turning dependents into wage earners through better chances of education, accessibility to more knowledge and interpersonal skills, etc. It is also enabling them to stay in touch with their loved ones, even when they are away from them.