Oswald Foundation

Oswald Foundation
Private
Industry Accessibility
Founded New Delhi, India (August 15, 2016 (2016-08-15))
Founders
Headquarters New Delhi, India
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Anand Chowdhary
(CEO)
Nishant Gadihoke
(CTO)
Mahendra Singh Raghuwanshi
(COO)
Products
Website oswald.foundation

Oswald Foundation is an Indian multinational[1] accessibility technology company based in New Delhi that builds products for individuals suffering from disabilities.[2][3] It was established in 2016 by then 18-year-old Anand Chowdhary and 15-year-old Nishant Gadihoke after their product, Oswald Extension,[4] won an event at the AngelHack hackathon in New Delhi.[5][6][7] 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".[8][9]

Oswald Foundation is named in honor of Oswald Berkhan, the German physician who first identified dyslexia in 1881.[10][11] In August 2017, Oswald Foundation is opening their first office in Enschede, the Netherlands.[12][13]

History

Chowdhary and Gadihoke started working together as students at The Mother's International School, as part of their computer club, MINET, of which Chowdhary was President.[14][15] Chowdhary shared his idea of developing an accessibility tool with Gadihoke, and they decided to develop the extension during the AngelHack Delhi 2016.[16][17]

After the development of the tool, Chowdhary and Gadihoke purchased the domain oswald.foundation on August 14, 2016 and founded Oswald Foundation on India's Independence Day on August 15, 2016.[18][19][20] Oswald Foundation won an award at Startup India Rocks in Bengaluru and is a part of IBM's Global Entrepreneur Program.[21][22][23][24] They are also incubated in the London and Berlin-based EYE Focus Accelerator, a startup accelerator program for companies developing for living with visual impairment.[25][26][27]

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.[28][29][30] On June 17 and 18, 2017, Oswald Foundation 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.[31][32][33][34][35] In June 2017, Oswald Foundation raised ₹100,000 in a crowdfunding campaign.[36][37][38][39]

Products

Agastya

Agastya is a cross-platform JavaScript library and web accessibility plug-in for websites.[40][41] It automatically adds WCAG 2.0-compliancy, like support for keyboard navigation, automatic generation for alternate text for images using computer vision, and font adjustment.[42] It also includes a mode that adjusts the color temperature of the display to reduce eye strain and disruption of sleep patterns, much like the program f.lux, along with a night mode that converts a webpage to a dark theme, and a dyslexia-friendly mode that uses Open Dyslexic and dyslexia-friendly color contrasts.[43][44] For uses with visual impairment, it has a built-in screen reader that uses content extraction and speech synthesis.[45][46] Websites can also access analytics about their user's disabilities. It is available for free for websites with less than 10,000 pageviews per month, and has a subscription model for larger websites.[47]

Shravan

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.[48][49] It can be easily used by people with dyslexia or visual impairment, and even senior citizens and illiterates.[50][51][52] It is also reportedly the first smartphone operating system with built-in Digital India technologies like Aadhaar integration and Unified Payments Interface payments and works in over 25 native Indian languages.[53][54] Shravan is expected to part of a publicly-available hardware device in 2018.[55][56][57][58]

Valmiki

Previously known as Oswald itself, 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.[59][60] Users with dyslexia can change the typeface to Open Dyslexic and colors to dyslexia-friendly colors, and visually impaired users can listen to the content available on a webpage.[61][62] It also allows users to customize a webpage's typography and style based on their reading preferences.[63][64][65] It is a free and open-source software available in the Chrome Web Store.[66][67][68]

References

  1. ↑ "Anand Chowdhary". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2017-06-12.
  2. ↑ "Oswald Foundation". oswald.foundation. Retrieved 2016-09-01.
  3. ↑ "Oswald Foundation | Made with Love in India". madewithlove.org.in. Retrieved 2017-02-03.
  4. ↑ Gadihoke, Anand Chowdhary and Nishant. "Oswald". getoswald.xyz. Retrieved 2016-09-01.
  5. ↑ "Learn How Two Teens From Delhi Are Coding To Make The World A Better Place!". AngelHack. 2016-06-18. Retrieved 2016-09-01.
  6. ↑ "How Two Teenagers Are Helping People with Dyslexia & Visual Impairments Access the Web". 2016-08-01. Retrieved 2016-09-01.
  7. ↑ ScoopWhoop. "These Delhi Teens Created A Reading App For People With Dyslexia. Bravo!". Retrieved 2016-09-01.
  8. ↑ "These Delhi Teens Want To Change The Web With Their Reading App For Dyslexics". Huffington Post India. Retrieved 2016-09-01.
  9. ↑ ParentHerald (2016-08-04). "Special Needs Technology Devised By Teens: Web Reading App For People With Dyslexia, Learning Disabilities And Visual Impairments". Retrieved 2016-09-01.
  10. ↑ "Anand Chowdhary on Twitter". Retrieved 2016-09-04.
  11. ↑ "Accessibility · Oswald International". Oswald International. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
  12. ↑ Bureau, BW Online. "Oswald Foundation 10 Month Old Startup Goes Multinational". BW Disrupt. Retrieved 2017-07-14.
  13. ↑ "BW Disrupt". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2017-07-14.
  14. ↑ "MINET - Timeline | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2016-09-01.
  15. ↑ Goel, Anushka (2016-08-11). "WOW! These Delhi Teens Want To Device A Reading App For The Dyslexic!". Retrieved 2016-09-01.
  16. ↑ "How Two Teenagers Are Helping People with Dyslexia & Visual Impairments Access the Web - The Better India | DailyHunt". Retrieved 2016-09-01.
  17. ↑ 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.
  18. ↑ "Oswald Foundation - About | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
  19. ↑ "oswald.foundation whois lookup - who.is". who.is. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
  20. ↑ "Oswald Foundation on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
  21. ↑ "Startup India Rocks! 2016 - Building Value to Exit". startupindia.rocks. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  22. ↑ Startup India Rocks! (2016-12-26), Startup India Rocks! 2016 ETNOW Telecast, retrieved 2017-01-04
  23. ↑ "Oswald Foundation Wins Startup India Rocks 2016 - PR.com". www.pr.com. Retrieved 2017-02-03.
  24. ↑ "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.
  25. ↑ "#EyeFocus2016 Startup Spotlight Series:... - EyeFocus Accelerator | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  26. ↑ "EyeFocus India Startups: Oswald Foundation (Anand Chowdhary)". Vimeo. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  27. ↑ "Oswald Foundation Incubated in EYE Focus Accelerator – SAT Press Releases". Retrieved 2017-02-03.
  28. ↑ "Oswald Foundation Wins Delhi Round of The Economic Times Presents Catapooolt Changemakers Challenge Season 2". bbcrecordlondon.com. Retrieved 2017-04-10.
  29. ↑ "Oswald Foundation Wins Delhi Round of The Economic Times Presents Catapooolt Changemakers Challenge Season 2 – MilTech". Retrieved 2017-04-10.
  30. ↑ itnewsonline. "IT News Online > PR.com - Oswald Foundation Wins Delhi Round of The Economic Times Presents Catapooolt Changemakers Challenge Season 2". www.itnewsonline.com. Retrieved 2017-04-10.
  31. ↑ "BharatHacks · Solve problems for India". bharathacks.com. Retrieved 2017-06-12.
  32. ↑ "BharatHacks – Programmers, Designers, Engineers, and Entrepreneurs Joining Hands To Make Lives Of Billion Indians Bettter - Bizztor". bizztor.com. Retrieved 2017-06-12.
  33. ↑ "Bharath Hackathon - developerWorks India". developerWorks India. 2016-07-18. Retrieved 2017-06-12.
  34. ↑ "Bharathacks | hackSociety". hacksociety.tech. Retrieved 2017-06-12.
  35. ↑ Bureau, BW Online. "BharatHacks a Hackathon to Solve Problems for India". BW Disrupt. Retrieved 2017-07-28.
  36. ↑ "Oswald Foundation Raises INR 100K in Successful Crowdfunding Campaign - PR.com". www.pr.com. Retrieved 2017-07-01.
  37. ↑ "Oswald Foundation | Catapooolt". www.catapooolt.com. Retrieved 2017-07-01.
  38. ↑ "Oswald Foundation Raises INR 100K in Successful Crowdfunding Campaign". BBC Record London.
  39. ↑ "Oswald Foundation". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2017-07-01.
  40. ↑ "Agastya - Oswald Foundation". Oswald Foundation. Retrieved 2017-07-09.
  41. ↑ "Delhi teens start company to make accessible products". newzhook.com. Retrieved 2017-07-09.
  42. ↑ "Sponsors – Made with Love in India". madewithlove.org.in. Retrieved 2017-07-09.
  43. ↑ "Oswald Foundation | Catapooolt". www.catapooolt.com. Retrieved 2017-07-09.
  44. ↑ "Oswald Foundation Raises INR 100K In Successful Crowdfunding Campaign". www.news.viralkick.in. Retrieved 2017-07-09.
  45. ↑ "Chaaipani". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2017-07-09.
  46. ↑ "At Just 16 And 18, These Delhi Teens Are Using Tech To Make The Web Accessible To Dyslexics And The Visually Impaired". www.news.viralkick.in. Retrieved 2017-07-09.
  47. ↑ DesiredWings (2017-05-19), Catapooolt: Oswald Foundation, retrieved 2017-07-09
  48. ↑ Chowdhary, Anand (2016-09-09). "Machine Learning in 6 Lines". Oswald Foundation. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
  49. ↑ "Anand Chaudhary - Necessity Leading To Innovation". Humans of Entrepreneurship. 2016-10-25. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  50. ↑ "Oswald Foundation Wins Delhi Round of The Economic Times Presents Catapooolt Changemakers Challenge Season 2 - PR.com". www.pr.com. Retrieved 2017-04-10.
  51. ↑ bizwireexpress. "BizWire Express > - Oswald Foundation Wins Delhi Round of The Economic Times Presents Catapooolt Changemakers Challenge Season 2". bizwireexpress.com. Retrieved 2017-04-10.
  52. ↑ "Oswald Foundation Wins Delhi Round of The Economic Times Presents Catapooolt Changemakers Challenge Season 2". Press Release Net. 2017-04-10. Retrieved 2017-04-10.
  53. ↑ "Shravan - Oswald Foundation". Oswald Foundation. Retrieved 2017-02-03.
  54. ↑ "BBC Record London".
  55. ↑ Desk, BWW News. "Oswald Foundation Gets Into IBM Global Entrepreneur". Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  56. ↑ "Oswald Foundation Gets Into IBM Global Entrepreneur". Press Release Net. 2017-02-20. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  57. ↑ "Oswald Foundation Gets Into IBM Global Entrepreneur – SAT Press Releases". Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  58. ↑ "Oswald Foundation Gets Into IBM Global Entrepreneur - PR.com". www.pr.com. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
  59. ↑ "DAISY Consortium's News Brief - # 2016-10b". DAISY Consortium. 2016-10-01. Retrieved 2017-01-05.
  60. ↑ Homegrown. "Thanks To Two Indian Teenagers, Dyslexic Internet Users Can Now Surf The Web With Ease". Homegrown. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  61. ↑ "Delhi teens create Web tool for dyslexics & vision impaired". www.newzhook.com. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  62. ↑ "7 Indian tech startups with a vision for the disabled". TECHSEEN. 2017-04-12. Retrieved 2017-04-13.
  63. ↑ "Teens create tool to help dyslexics access web". Inshorts - Stay Informed. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  64. ↑ Tarana (2016-09-14). "Two Indian Teenagers Built an App To Help Dyslexic People Use the Internet". The Timeliners. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  65. ↑ "From Teen Geeks to Saviors". Views on News. 2016-08-06. Retrieved 2017-01-04.
  66. ↑ Gadihoke, Anand Chowdhary and Nishant. "Oswald". valmiki.oswald.foundation. Retrieved 2017-02-03.
  67. ↑ "OswaldFoundation/valmiki". GitHub. Retrieved 2017-02-03.
  68. ↑ "Valmiki - Oswald Foundation". Oswald Foundation. Retrieved 2017-02-03.
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