Reducing the unemployment rate amongst blind people by introducing a working tool that increases their autonomy and productivity.

Project Information

Tactonom

Grant agreement ID: 828110

DOI

10.3030/828110

Project closed

EC signature date 2 August 2018

Start date 1 September 2018

End date 28 February 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

INVENTIVIO GMBH
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Tactonom (Reducing the unemployment rate amongst blind people by introducing a working tool that increases their autonomy and productivity.)

Reporting period: 2018-09-01 to 2019-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The German company Inventivio GmbH has developed a tactile display called the Tactonom (www.tactonom.com) that enables blind people to access not only text-based information but any kind of information including tables, images, charts, maps, floor plans, graphics and many more.

The objective of the company is to help reduce the unemployment rate amongst blind people in Europe (75 %), by 10 percentage points until 2028, thus enabling 78.600 blind people to access a job. By enabling blind people to access any information without the help of others, the Tactonom is a break-through technology that increases the autonomy and the productivity of blind people in the work space and thus renders a multitude of different job profiles accessible to blind people.

In order to better understand the targeted markets France, the UK, Austria and Switzerland, the company has conducted a market survey to analyze the market dynamics and the business potential for its tactile display for blind people. Based on this analysis the company has developed business plans for each of the four countries.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In order to better understand the targeted markets France, the UK, Austria and Switzerland, the company has conducted a market survey to analyze the market dynamics and the business potential for its tactile display for blind people. In the process Inventivio has visited the countries and contacted key stakeholders of the blind community. Also, extensive internet research has been conducted. On the basis of the collected information the company has developed business plans for each of the four countries.

Of key interest to the company is how each country supports its blind citizens with regards to financing assistive technologies for blind people in education, in the work space or for private usages such as mobility, taking part in society or accessing news and information. In all four countries the reimbursement is organized differently. The countries’ policies differ with regards to which use cases are supported (education, job, private), the levels of financial support and which financing bodies organize the reimbursement. For a company with Europe wide ambitions, these differences add significant complexities to do business in Europe.

A second focus of the market survey was to understand the sales channel in the four countries. Here again, it was revealed that the distribution landscape differs tremendously from country to country ranging from almost monopoly situations to non-profit sales models to a more regionalized set-up.

Due to the fact that the way the societies support their blind citizens differs strongly and many other business factors are not the same, Inventivio has developed country specific business plans for each of the four countries.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The market survey had a significant impact on the business planning and the future development of our company, because a number of assumptions the we had before the market survey did not turn out to be correct. The market survey therefore enabled us to develop realistic business plans for each of the four markets.

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