Episode 25: Mashable Pakistan Lab – Boltay Huroof

According to various studies conducted in Pakistan across the decade, it has been estimated that there are around 2 million people in the country who are visually impaired. Still, there are many visually impaired people out there in this country who have aspirations about their academic or professional lives, and want to achieve big even if they can’t see properly.

However, majority of them have to face certain hurdles in their path to grow academically. One of the major barrier is the unviability to study material in Pakistan written in the language they can understand.

That certain language is called ‘braille’. Braille is a system of raised dots that can be read with the fingers by people who are blind or who have low vision. It can be termed as a code which many languages around the world can be written, so that visually impaired people can read. Braille provides a means of literacy for all.

Every country is trying to develop study material in Braille language, turning their native languages into codes, to help visually impaired people receive education. Unfortunately, there is not much study material on braille available in Urdu for people who live in Pakistan.

A startup named Boltay Huroof, discovered this problem in the country and have provided a solution in the form of a software that can turn Urdu alphabets into Braille language codes. These braille codes can be later imposed on a piece of paper to develop reading material for blind people in Pakistan.

Mashable Pakistan Lab talks to Umer Farooq, CEO of Boltay Huroof, who shares the details about how their software works, and their mission to turn all education material present in Urdu and other languages into braille.