DFO Global is proud to announce that four members of its development team – Hung Nguyen, Quang Huynh, Hanh Pham, and Gia Ho – won Microsoft’s APAC AI for Accessibility Virtual Hackathon for Vietnam, a competition that challenged teams throughout APAC countries to ideate and hack together solutions to real-life difficulties faced by those with disabilities.

“We’re passionate about stories and believe everyone should have access to books they love,” said Hung Nguyen. “But this isn’t always the case for those with visual disabilities.”

Using the Near Field Communication (NFC) technology (which allows data exchanges between devices via a simple touch) of DFO’s YehYeh app, the team created an audio book shelf, which allows visually impaired users to listen to their favorite book titles.

“We hacked this together understanding that gestures are complicated for the visually impaired, and many young or elderly people are not familiar with touch screens,” said Quang Huynh.

“NFC technology is a cheap, easy and effective way for impaired users to listen to their favorite stories,” said Hanh Pham. “Braille devices are expensive, need batteries to operate, and are often out of reach for most people in remote or developing areas.”

Congratulations to all the competitors and winners!