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Good practice Imported

Avaz — India's First AAC App Giving Non-Verbal Children a Voice in Six Regional Languages

India · Chennai · See the India profile · See the Chennai profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 68% 56/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Chennai's Avaz built India's first AAC app for non-verbal children with autism and cerebral palsy, localised into six Indian languages. It won India's National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities and has sold internationally for over a decade.

6 languages
Indian languages supported at launch (since 2010)
550,000 USD
Seed funding raised (2014)
Avaz — India's First AAC App Giving Non-Verbal Children a Voice in Six Regional Languages Avaz — India's First AAC App Giving Non-Verbal Children a Voice in Six Regional Languages

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Invention Labs Engineering Pvt Ltd (Avaz Inc.)
Period
Founded 2008–2010; commercial product since 2010, ongoing
Keywords
assistive technology, augmentative and alternative communication, edtech, disability inclusion

Context

Invention Labs, founded by IIT Madras graduate Ajit Narayanan, built Avaz — an electronic augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app that turns symbol sequences into speech for children with autism, cerebral palsy, Angelman syndrome, Down syndrome and aphasia.

Objectives

Unlike imported AAC tools, Avaz was designed from the outset in Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu and Marathi, with further localisation into Gujarati and Bengali, addressing the fact that most global AAC software launched only in English.

Activities

The product won the Indian President's National Award for Empowerment of People with Disabilities in 2010, and Narayanan was named to MIT Technology Review's '35 Innovators Under 35' in 2011; the company raised $550,000 in seed funding in 2014 from Inventus Capital, Mumbai Angels and other investors to expand distribution.

Results

More than a decade on, Avaz continues to sell into special-needs classrooms in the United States and is recommended for use in Indian special schools, making it one of the longest-running Southern-origin AAC products still in active commercial use.

Conclusions

As with most AAC apps, no independently published outcome study of communication gains was found during this review.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — Development required building and localising an AAC symbol-to-speech system into six-plus Indian languages, later scaled with $550,000 in seed investment to expand distribution.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Founded circa 2008–2010, the product has been in continuous commercial sale for over a decade, from its 2010 launch and award recognition through ongoing sales in the US and India today.
Staffing & skills
Invention Labs Engineering Pvt Ltd (Avaz Inc.), founded by Ajit Narayanan (IIT Madras)

Conditions for success

  • Designing for six Indian languages from the outset rather than retrofitting an English-only import
  • Early recognition (India's National Award, MIT Technology Review) building credibility and distribution
  • Seed investment ($550,000, 2014) to expand distribution into international markets

Common failure modes

  • No independently published clinical or educational outcome study of communication gains
  • No published lessons-learned or evaluation report from the company or independent researchers

Where it fits

Governance type
private company (edtech/assistive-technology vendor)
Scale
international commercial distribution (India and United States)
Income level
lower-middle-income (India, primary origin market)

Commonly funded by

Own resources / municipal budget

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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