With a vision to help people with disability overcome information barrier, Friends for Inclusion is launching Mera Mitra. It is your personal companion on disability rights in India. Powered by the most advance technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Natural language Processing. A first of its kind chatbot, that is designed to provide instant access to information on disability in India; including concepts related to disability such as assistive technology, accessibility, etc; disability related schemes and rights provided by state and central governments; Legal provisions provided under the law such as RPWD Act; types of technology & services and much more. In a nutshell, Mera Mitra wants to become synonymous with disability in India and aspires to be the “one stop solution for all things on disability”.
Who is it for?
Mera Mitra is an invaluable resource for persons with disability, disability advocacy groups, organizations working in this field, employers, and for every one of those who has a friend, family or a colleague with disability.
How can Mera Mitra help?
While the team is constantly adding newer information and features to Mera Mitra, it already provides several information to people with disabilities that helps them bridge information barrier, and to everyone else wanting to know more about disability. Take for instance:
- For people with disabilities:
- One can ask disability rights related doubts such as “Can I operate a bank account, can I vote etc.
- Help one find the nearest government hospital to get the medical certificate
- tell one about the rights for example info on the punishments for crime against persons with disability
- local authority Info such as State Commissioners for disability
- For private and public corporations, it
can:
- explain the mandates for employers,
- Tell about the standards for building websites
- Information on equal opportunity policy and where to get it registered?
- information on incentives provided by government.
- If you’re a journalist or one has a friend or a
colleague or you can ask
- What are the acceptable terms to refer to people with disabilities, for example “what is the correct term to refer to a blind person?
- Best practices while interacting with a person with a disability.
- about the things to keep in mind while drafting a story on a person with disability
- If you’re a disability NGO, then:
- Help one know about state schemes for disability
- It can Read the RPWD Act, say read section 38 of the RPWD Act
- It can tell about procedure to register your institution under the RPWD Act
How to access Mera Mitra:
Available on Google Assistant & Facebook Messenger, You don’t have to download a separate app to access Mera Mitra. All smartphones capable to operate Google Assistant or Facebook Messenger app can start Mera Mitra. Similarly, all smart speakers powered by Google Assistant can invoke Mera Mitra anytime, anywhere. Just try saying or typing – “Talk to Mera Mitra” on Google Assistant or search for “Mera Mitra” on Facebook Messenger.
Why? The Mera Mitra advantage
With Mera Mitra we aim to bridge the information asymmetry that is a large awareness gap by aggregating information across different disabilities across India on one common platform. It leverages state of art technologies such as artificial intelligence, natural language processing that helps to understand the user intent and provide the most accurate information. The service is available on platforms such as Google Assistant which complies to WCAG standards and can be easily operated by voice and text, thereby making inclusive for all types of disabilities. The platform will allow to trickle down key policies and schemes for persons with disabilities on a click of button. And, lastly, it provides 24/7 instant access to information on most popular services such as Google Assistant, Facebook Messenger etc which makes it highly scalable at a fraction of a cost. Here is a link to a video demonstration of how Mera Mitra works: