Phone app helps Kenya's visually impaired get around

While other smart cane solutions or other solutions for the visually impaired make use of haptic feedback or vibrations or special awareness, what makes Sightra unique is that the user is able to know exactly what is ahead of them in their path, so the real time AI obstacle awareness is able to relay this information to the user in real time in a way that haptic feedback and vibrations will not be able to communicate that to the user.

So, as a user walks they are able to identify objects and obstacles along the way so the web app is able to do that and that information is relayed to them in real time through an earpiece.

Leonard Dawafula, chief disability services officer at Kenya’s National Council for Persons with Disabilities, says roads, buildings and other infrastructure remain difficult for people with disabilities.