Esha Summer Program 2026: AI for All

Context 

The project will run from April – March 2026. 

The idea is to use AI specifically for the non-sighted. 

What does that mean, exactly? 

If you are someone who is interested in AI and its use cases, find one that will specifically help the non-sighted. 

Then, write to us. 

You can work on the idea by yourself OR with a team member. (if you don’t have a team member, we will publish your idea and wait for someone to express interest) 

The implementation has a luxurious timeline of 3 months  – April to June 2026. 

We prototype in April/May. 

Test in May/June 

Do limited deployment latest by June end. 

And wait for the user response. 

So, is this a contest?

No. 

All usable ideas are winners. 

Who can participate? 

Anyone above the age of 14. The opportunity is best suited for students looking for a summer internship/project, but anyone at all. 

The project is open to everyone across the world. 

But I know nothing about blindness?  

We will host orientation sessions every weekend all through April. 

Register for any one of them to get the fundamentals, AMAs, and any other info you need. 

Register for a session that works for you here. 

https://forms.gle/U7eXrcE7m4JpH8DW9

But the best way to get to know the sector is to visit a school/hostel near you. Observe. Record. Understand. 

Finally, What’s in it for me? 

First, the opportunity to use AI as you haven’t imagined before. A greenfield territory. 

Two, the certificate. The certificate will also mention the adoption of your idea. Esha certificates are recognised globally and count towards community work AND tech experience. 

Third, all inventors retain the IP on their idea. However, we do require that the tech should be made available to the VI either for free OR at a nominal cost. 

Fourth, that magical thing – mentoring and meeting other great folks thinking differently in this space. 

More details here: https://eshabraille.org/current-projects/

Report on the Esha Summer Program 2023

The Esha Summer Project 2023 got off to a nice start with 55 registrations. Most of these registrations were through social media. 

As usual, the students were asked for their choice of project. 

Orientations were held for students who opted for project management, video making, and research. 

Eventually, three students were part of the research project. They did some analysis and helped us create tables and graphs that went into the report. 

Students dropped out at various points in the program. 

We observed the following: 

A. Students who opted for video making dropped out when they realised that they have to follow a process and create an educational video, not a social media video. They did try but were not able to make an explainer. 

B. Some students had travel that interfered with the summer program. 

C. All the students who opted for Project Management dropped out because of the quantum of work. One student was blacklisted. It is recommended that project management should not be given to students. This experiment has failed, yet again. 

D. Some students, who chose research, were not able to devote the time required to do the analysis. The learning for us is that high school students are not able to tabulate data or make basic graphs. That expectation should be corrected. Further, there is a real time crunch among high school students. 

About 25 students were selected for participation. 11 students completed the program, and only one of them got a Certificate of Commendation this year. 

Our objective at Esha every year is that the students should get sensitised to the needs of blindness. Am very happy to report that the only student who did Blind Walks this year, was very touched at the end of the program. The other students who participated in research or recording also wrote to us that they learnt something as part of the project. 

One difference this year was that English screenreaders are now relatively mature. So, we did not get English content recorded. Content was contributed and is being uploaded on the Esha website for free download. Like CLABIL this content is also academic or literary in nature. 

Lessons for the next year

1. We should be more friendly with the volunteers. 

2. We need to keep the parents more involved throughout the process. Sometimes, students forget to tell us about travel plans. parents do this better. 

3. Project management should not be given to students at any level - including college. 

4. We shoudl try to get more college students. 

5. This year, we could not convince children to do Blind Walks. Next time, we should try and get more blind walks done. 

Output 

Audio Files - 12 audio files in Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, and English (1 file on lakes of Bengaluru). 

Content - 12 question banks submitted in History, Physics, English, Chemistry, and Biology. 

Blind Walks - Two blind walks covering 12 people. 

Research - 3 students 

Partial work is not listed in this output. Work done but not found to be of suitable quality is also not listed. 

Esha Summer Program 2023

 The Esha Summer Program 2023 is here! 

The presentation is here. 

You can also see the slides in order below. 

The link to register is: https://forms.gle/P5hLAd77M3a381kj7

For any questions, please write to us at summers@clabil.org 

Report on the 2022 Esha Summer Program

The Esha Summer Project 2022 was a happy one in the sense that after 2 years, we reintroduced field work. 

For the last few years, the project management was being done by students. This year, I decided to do the project management myself to interact with the summer volunteers and to understand their working and communication style better, so we may train our next year's PMO volunteers better. 

Here are the observations: 

1. Since this project was going to be managed by a single PM, we decided to cap capacity at 15-20 volunteers only. 

2. We decided that a virtual orientation with all volunteers to help them understand the ethos of Esha was mandatory. If a volunteer does not attend the orientation, they cannot continue in the program. 

3. Like every year, the form had to be closed within 2-3 days. We got 45 applications within 4 days. We usually keep a buffer for about 40% dropout ratio, because students tend to underestimate the professionalism required for this work. Some children were underage. We informed them and looked forward to having them in the program once they were older. 

4. The biggest dropout rate was in the orientation itself. Only 26 children attended the orientation. We held 2 sessions so children could attend at their convenience, and then one more at the request of some parents. 

5. Of the 26 who attended, we gave them assignments as per their choice. The website team had some discussions, but never really delivered anything. Quite a few students started work but did not submit by the deadline date. No reminders were sent, and they were removed from the program. Which was, I think, a good practice, because we never heard from these children again, so a reminder would have been a waste of time for both. 

6. A total of 10 volunteers completed the program and got their certificates. Of these, 3 were selected for the Certificate of Commendation. 

7. We conducted 3 blind walks, recorded 6 audio files, and made an awareness video about Discovering Hands - a special employment and health initiative by blind women. But the bulk of the work was done in research - we collected responses from 700 people through the summer program, which is very impressive. The next stage is report writing and making that report universally available. The audio files have now been uploaded to the online library. 

Overall, it was a satisfying experience and we had some lessons.

Some of the students who dropped out told us that they had applied to more than one summer program and just prioritised their time. i.e., if they got an assignment with a better known NGO, or one that interested them more, they went for it. 

The children who did volunteer with us said that their experience was positive and they enjoyed the experience. 

Next year, I think we should have a more structured feedback mechanism so that we are able to proactively improve the program for the volunteers of the future. 

These are the videos created as part of Summer Program 2022: 

Discovering Hands - Breast Cancer Detection without radiation - YouTube

Esha Sensitisation: Blind Walks of 2022 - YouTube

Discovering Hands - Early Breast Cancer detection - Sehar Jaggi makes a video

Very happy to share this. After 2 years, this year, Esha finally restarted field work on sensitisation and our summer project included Blind walks and information videos. 

One of the most amazing projects in India is early breast cancer detection. Early detection, esp for cancer, can make a world of difference.

Dr. Hoffman discovered, tested, and brought to market a technique that allows early detection of breast cancer in through a non-invasive, zero-radiation diagnostic test. This special technique was brought to India by the NAB Center for Women - because - wait for it - this non-invasive diagnostic test is conducted by VI professionals!

Sehar Jaggi, our volunteer for Summer program 2022, made this lovely awareness video on location - at the NAB Center for Women, Delhi! 

https://youtu.be/GIdPKdxN4ys

This is the first awareness video coming out of Esha after a long time. Do watch! :)

And if you are aware of more such initiatives that we can carry, please do let us know. Just a gentle reminder - our keywords are Dignity, Empowerment, Enablement.

Any project supporting these three keywords are wonderful for us to know about and amplify, in whatever small way we can.

The Esha Summer Project 2022

Today, I checked. 

The Esha Summer Program started in 2011. We have been running a structured summer volunteering program for students for 11 years now! This is our 12th Summer Program. 

A summer program is not just a way to build the audio library, or improve the social media numbers for Esha. 

A summer program helps us sensitise scores of students every year. 

When they join, they are eager young people looking to add something to their resume. 

But as they conduct blind walks, learn braille, record, they change. They start to see inclusion for what it is - natural. 

This year, we offer 4 volunteering options. Field work is back for the first time since 2019. 

Inviting student interest in the Esha Summer Program. 

Entries close 15th May or when we reach program capacity, whichever is sooner. 

More details here. 

Please register here: https://forms.gle/2d26Hh1UvWF8n1qk9

Esha Summer Project 2020 is here!

So what if we are at home? The Esha Summer Project, which allows volunteers to contribute from home, is back!

Our choices are fewer, but they are all super exciting!

Check out the Summer Project presentation here. 

And then, once you have made up your mind, (and only when you have made up your mind)

REGISTER HERE. 

Registrations close 20th May.
Update: We have reopened registrations based on your 
inputs. Registrations are now open till June 5. 

This is really important: DO NOT REGISTER IF YOU ARE NOT SURE.

A lot of our time and effort is invested in each volunteer. But more importantly, it just makes us sad when people register for fun and then simply don't show up or backtrack. 

Summer Project 2019 - Report

This year's summer project was one of the most productive Summer Projects that Esha has ever had.

Special Thanks to the Project Managers who managed this baton relay race so seamlessly that I had no idea when the project management changed!

They also managed volunteer selection, monitoring and reporting, and closure. Compared to the previous years, when our volunteers pick assignments and then drop out, this year, the sudden dropout number was very, very less. People were selected well, so they stuck to their assignments and the assignments were delivered high quality, on time, and with great professionalism.

The 3 main threads of this year's Summer Project were:

1. Content - Shreyas Kadam and Aprita Mary did an outstanding job of writing some high quality articles on the Esha blog.

2. Esha Research Project - Jainish Malhotra, Vikram Gaur, and Meenakshi Agarwal contributed to the secondary and primary research on this project. Their work was awe-inspiring because the insights that they picked up from the field, and their enthusiasm, can only be experienced, not described.

3. Voice Recording - This was, like every year, the most selected summer project option. This year, we laid special emphasis on career oriented content. So  you will now find previous years questions papers for upto the last 10 years for the following examinations:
A. SSC
B. NTPC
C. RRB
D. Civil Services Exam - Mains and Prelims
E. CLAT
F. CAT
G. SBI PO Exams


On the literature side, we added:
A. Viky Arya's poetry
B. Akbar Birbal in Marathi.
C. A story by Smita

And outside the Summer Project, Anil Bhagat ji, who is a long-time Friend of Esha, converted easy law (a long-pending dream of mine) from nyaaya.in to audio for our users.  He also converted the text of the entire Draft National Education Policy - 2019 (NEP-2019), so that the print disabled can give their feedback on the policy too. This initiative of his was much appreciated by Vasudha Kamat mam, who is part of the NEP Committee.

It was SUCH a pleasure to be a part of the Summer Project 2019. Here's to every year being like this, or better. :) 

The Esha Summer Project, 2019 is here!

Last year, Rohan, a student of just 16 years, conducted and presented his primary research report on Career Preferences of the Visually Challenged. A report like that has not been attempted in India before.


This year, we have come up with an even more important research project - which has far reaching use for people designing knowledge resources.


All Esha projects can be done from home, or in vicinity.


You can access the summer project options here.

The Esha Summer Project 2018 is here!

The Esha Summer Project 2018 is here!


The work options this year are greater than ever before and for the first time, there are 3 research projects too!


The best thing to do would be to download the presentation and see it in slide show format. Each slide indicates what that project entails, the time credit that you will get and the time that you need to invest.
...

And then tell us what you would like to do!


The ppt version of the Summer Project details is here:
https://bit.ly/2HUv8wz
The pdf version is here:
https://bit.ly/2F9txjq


All queries and registrations to eshabraille@gmail.com

Library Updated - 6438 files now

Today, the library was updated and there are 2 notable additions:


Malti Joshi ji, a Hindi author of repute, has donated her stories recorded in her own voice, for the library. Do search for "Malti Joshi" and enjoy these stories, as I am determined to do.


Vibha Srichand has recorded some great biographical stories of Swami Vivekananda.

The Esha Summer Project 2016 is here!!

This year, the Esha Summer Project is really, realy big. Its 5 times the size of the earlier Summer Projects, includes 6 types of volunteering options, can be done from home or the field, and in general, will change the scale of our Summer Project, making it one of our strategic activities in the year.

This year, we are announcing the Summer Project through a video.

The video sums up all our volunteering options, AND everything u need to know about Esha - in case this is the first time you are hearing of us.

So go on, do spread the word! Let the Summer Project Begin!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_WI0FnlKEM
PS: Like every year, students will get certificates that can be used to demonstrate community contribution in college admissions.

The Esha Summer Project is Back!! - Esha Summer Project 2015

Get your children involved in doing a good deed from the comfort of their homes!


Great way to spend summers for children 8 years and above.

All they need to do is to use a laptop/ computer and record audio content for the online library - www.braillecards.org/audio.php

Please write to eshaclabil@gmail.com or post a comment here to join the Summer Project.
a) Name of Child
b) Age of Child-
c) Languages Spoken
d) Interest Areas:
e) Recording preference: Academic Content/ Fiction/ Model papers
And of course, do spread the word!


All participants of the Summer Project get certificates that can be used in college admission submissions.

This year, we have an additional component of Field Work - where you can use the content of CLABIL to change a life near you - make a person/group - a guard, a maid, a small school near your house, listen to audio content from CLABIL, and tell us whether it made a difference to them..

Here are some suggestions:
1. Guards near the house: Stories, esp. in their Native languages. Can be given to them in a small SD Card. Most of them have phones that support audio and SD cards. They use that time to listen to the radio. This will be a great value addition. Or Wikipedia articles.

2. Maids: Stories, Wikipedia articles.

3. Children (of maids, at a school near your house, at a mobile crèche near you, at a construction site near you) : Childrens stories, childrens poetry, Asaan Ganit, Learn English through Hindi/Punjabi Stories, Quotations..


Reach out to someone near you. You may not even need to step out of the house to do this.