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Good practice Imported

BrailleGenAI — Edge-AI Braille Learning Game Piloted at Karachi's School for the Blind and Deaf

Pakistan · Karachi · See the Pakistan profile · See the Karachi profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 100% 7/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Mehran University and the IEEE Karachi Section built BrailleGenAI, an edge-AI and generative-AI device that reads tactile Braille blocks aloud and gamifies literacy practice for blind children, piloted with about 10 students at Karachi's Ida Rieu School for the Blind and Deaf.

$9,156
Project funding (EPICS in IEEE) (Winter/Spring 2025)
BrailleGenAI — Edge-AI Braille Learning Game Piloted at Karachi's School for the Blind and Deaf

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET); IEEE Karachi Section (EPICS in IEEE)
Period
Winter/Spring 2025
Keywords
K-12 education, disability inclusion, engineering student project

Context

Pakistan has more than 1.5 million blind people, including thousands of children who struggle to access education because trained Braille teachers and special schools are scarce outside major cities. A student team from Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET), working with the IEEE Karachi Section and the IEEE Education Society, built BrailleGenAI: a portable device combining edge AI and generative AI with a camera to recognise tactile Braille blocks and give real-time audio feedback via text-to-speech.

Activities

Gamified modules cover literacy, numeracy, logical reasoning and voice recognition, with auto-grading and record-keeping to support independent practice. The prototype was demonstrated with students and volunteers at Ida Rieu School for the Blind and Deaf in Karachi.

Results

The project launched in Winter/Spring 2025 with $9,156 in EPICS in IEEE funding, involving about 10 students and 2 volunteers — one of 48 EPICS in IEEE projects funded worldwide that year.

Conclusions

It remains an early-stage prototype: no independent evaluation of literacy gains or classroom-scale deployment has been published, so its evidence base is descriptive rather than measured, with reach limited to a single pilot school.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — Funded at $9,156 through EPICS in IEEE student-project funding.
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — Winter/Spring 2025 project cycle.
Staffing & skills
MUET Electronic Engineering Department student team, IEEE Karachi Section (EPICS in IEEE), Ida Rieu School for the Blind and Deaf

Conditions for success

  • Edge-AI design allows the device to work without reliable internet access

Common failure modes

  • No independent evaluation of literacy or numeracy outcomes has been published

Where it fits

Governance type
university student engineering project
Scale
single pilot school
Income level
lower-middle income

Commonly funded by

Philanthropic / foundation funding

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

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

Attachments

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