Anand Chowdhary

Anand Chowdhary

Chowdhary speaking at a Facebook event in 2017
Born (1997-12-29) 29 December 1997
New Delhi, India
Residence New Delhi, India
Nationality Indian
Alma mater
Occupation Interaction designer, computer programmer, entrepreneur
Known for Co-founder of Oswald Foundation
Title CEO of Oswald Foundation
Website anandchowdhary.com

Anand Chowdhary is an Indian entrepreneur, interaction designer and developer. He is noted for his work on web accessibility and is the CEO of Oswald Foundation[1], an accessibility technology company.[2] He co-founded Oswald Foundation with fellow schoolmate Nishant Gadihoke after their product, Oswald Extension, won an event at the AngelHack hackathon in New Delhi.[3][4][5]

In an interview with The Huffington Post, Chowdhary said that he believes "Oswald can enable a Web 4.0 – a web centered around accessibility and equality".[6]

Career

While studying in The Mother's International School, Chowdhary was the President of the computer club, MINET.[7] He redesigned the official website of the school and was featured in the cover story of Time Out magazine.[8] He founded an education technology company, Class Rebels[9][10] and was a volunteer at Uday Foundation.[11] He also started Made with Love in India, an initiative to promote Indian brands and products, which is supported by companies including Snapdeal and Hike Messenger.[12][13]

In June 2017, Chowdhary organized BharatHacks, a hackathon to solve India-specific problems, in collaboration with DigitalOcean, IBM Global Entrepreneur, the Delhi-NCR chapter of Facebook's Developer Circles, HackerEarth, and other technology companies.[14][15][16]

After graduation from highschool, Chowdhary worked at the Government of Delhi.[17] He expanded upon a 2012 research done by Luz Rello and Ricardo Baeza-Yates for the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative.[18][19]

Oswald Foundation

In June 2016, Chowdhary shared his idea of developing an accessibility tool[20][21] with fellow schoolmate Nishant Gadihoke, and they decided to develop a Chrome extension during the AngelHack Delhi 2016 hackathon.[22][23][24] After the development of the tool, they purchased the domain oswald.foundation on August 14, 2016 and founded Oswald Foundation on India's Independence Day on August 15, 2016.[25] Chowdhary dropped out of Unitedworld Institute of Design to start Oswald Foundation, where he was studying Visual communication.[26]

Oswald Foundation is incubated in the London and Berlin-based EyeFocus Accelerator, a startup accelerator program for companies developing for living with visual impairment.[27][28] On April 8, 2017, Oswald Foundation qualified to the finals of The Economic Times's Catapoolt Changemakers Challenge after winning the first round in Delhi.[29] In June 2017, Oswald Foundation raised ₹100,000 in a crowdfunding campaign.[30][31][32]

Oswald Foundation has three products: Agastya, Shravan, and Valmiki. Agastya is a cross-platform JavaScript library and web accessibility plug-in for websites.[33] Shravan is an operating system for smartphones and tablet computers based on the Android mobile platform. It uses vibrational and speech feedback as its primary user interface and has special features that makes it more accessible than regular smartphone operating systems.[34][35] Valmiki is a browser extension based on independent research done by the British Dyslexia Association and the World Wide Web Consortium to allow people with dyslexia or visual impairment access the web.[36][37]

Awards and recognition

References

  1. ↑ "7 Indian tech startups with a vision for the disabled". TECHSEEN. 2017-04-12. Retrieved 2017-04-13.
  2. ↑ "Oswald Foundation". Oswald Foundation. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  3. ↑ "Learn How Two Teens From Delhi Are Coding To Make The World A Better Place!". AngelHack. 2016-06-18. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  4. ↑ "How Two Teenagers Are Helping People with Dyslexia & Visual Impairments Access the Web". The Better India. 2016-08-01. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  5. ↑ ScoopWhoop (2016-08-03). "These Delhi Teens Created A Reading App For People With Dyslexia. Bravo!". ScoopWhoop. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  6. ↑ "These Delhi Teens Want To Change The Web With Their Reading App For Dyslexics". Huffington Post India. Retrieved 2016-09-01.
  7. ↑ "BeingIndian.com". Beingindian. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  8. ↑ "MINET". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  9. ↑ isha (2016-08-06). "From Teen Geeks to Saviors". viewsonnewsonline. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  10. ↑ "ClassRebels.com". myventure.in. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  11. ↑ "Anand Chaudhary – Necessity Leading To Innovation". Humans of Entrepreneurship. 2016-10-25. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  12. ↑ "Hike Messenger : Made With Love In India | Above Android". Above Android. 2014-08-06. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  13. ↑ Chowdhary, Anand (2016-01-07). "Made with Love in India". Anand Chowdhary. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  14. ↑ "BharatHacks – Programmers, Designers, Engineers, and Entrepreneurs Joining Hands To Make Lives Of Billion Indians Bettter – Bizztor". bizztor.com. Retrieved 2017-06-12.
  15. ↑ "Bharath Hackathon – developerWorks India". developerWorks India. 2016-07-18. Retrieved 2017-06-12.
  16. ↑ Bureau, BW Online. "BharatHacks a Hackathon to Solve Problems for India". BW Disrupt. Retrieved 2017-07-28.
  17. ↑ "At just 16 and 18, these Delhi teens are using tech to make the web accessible to dyslexics and the visually impaired". YourStory (in undefined). 2017-03-15. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  18. ↑ Rello, Luz; Baeza-Yates, Ricardo (2017-03-01). "How to present more readable text for people with dyslexia". Universal Access in the Information Society. 16 (1): 29–49. ISSN 1615-5289. doi:10.1007/s10209-015-0438-8.
  19. ↑ ParentHerald (2016-08-04). "Special Needs Technology Devised By Teens: Web Reading App For People With Dyslexia, Learning Disabilities And Visual Impairments". Parent Herald. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  20. ↑ "Delhi teens create Web tool for dyslexics & vision impaired". www.newzhook.com. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  21. ↑ "PressReader.com – Connecting People Through News". www.pressreader.com. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  22. ↑ "How Two Teenagers Are Helping People with Dyslexia & Visual Impairments Access the Web – The Better India | DailyHunt". Retrieved 2016-09-01.
  23. ↑ Roy, Himanshu (2016-08-03). "Developed By School Kids, This App Makes Reading Easy For Dyslexics". Jaipur Women Blog – Stories of Indian Women. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  24. ↑ "Teens create tool to help dyslexics access web". Inshorts – Stay Informed. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  25. ↑ "oswald.foundation whois lookup – who.is". who.is. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
  26. ↑ "TEDxYouth@HaileyRoad | TED.com". www.ted.com. Retrieved 2017-07-21.
  27. ↑ "#EyeFocus2016 Startup Spotlight Series:... – EyeFocus Accelerator | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  28. ↑ "EyeFocus India Startups: Oswald Foundation (Anand Chowdhary)". Vimeo. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  29. ↑ "Oswald Foundation Wins Delhi Round of The Economic Times Presents Catapooolt Changemakers Challenge Season 2". bbcrecordlondon.com. Retrieved 2017-04-10.
  30. ↑ "Oswald Foundation | Catapooolt". www.catapooolt.com. Retrieved 2017-07-01.
  31. ↑ "Oswald Foundation Raises INR 100K in Successful Crowdfunding Campaign". BBC Record London.
  32. ↑ "Winn-Dixie Accessibility Lawsuit has Retailers on High Alert". Microassist. Retrieved 2017-07-09.
  33. ↑ "Agastya – Oswald Foundation". Oswald Foundation. Retrieved 2017-07-09.
  34. ↑ Chowdhary, Anand (2016-09-09). "Machine Learning in 6 Lines". Oswald Foundation. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
  35. ↑ "Anand Chaudhary – Necessity Leading To Innovation". Humans of Entrepreneurship. 2016-10-25. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  36. ↑ "DAISY Consortium's News Brief – # 2016-10b". DAISY Consortium. 2016-10-01. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
  37. ↑ Homegrown. "Thanks To Two Indian Teenagers, Dyslexic Internet Users Can Now Surf The Web With Ease". Homegrown. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  38. ↑ "Startup India Rocks! 2016 – Building Value to Exit". startupindia.rocks. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  39. ↑ Startup India Rocks! (2016-12-26), Startup India Rocks! 2016 ETNOW Telecast, retrieved 2017-01-04
  40. ↑ "Oswald Foundation Wins Startup India Rocks 2016 - PR.com". www.pr.com. Retrieved 2017-02-03.
  41. ↑ "Oswald Foundation Wins Startup India Rocks 2016 | delhi.techStartUp.in | All about the start-up scene in India". delhi.techStartUp.in | All about the start-up scene in India. Retrieved 2017-02-03.
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