Device to help the blind identify money | Fusion - WeRIndia

A new invention called the Tiffy Template is helping the blind identify currency notes and avoid getting cheated. That is not all, every blind person in India can get the Tiffy Template for free.

It all started with a blind girl named Tiffany Brar who promotes independent living for the visually challenged. She travels alone by public transport and even runs a mobile school for the blind. She wants everyone to be independent. She found the problem of monetary transactions. As it was not quite easy for her to identify different denominations.

She took this problem to her inventor friend Paul D’Souza. He quickly found a simple invention to solve this problem. He named it after Tiffany and called it the Tiffy Template. The simple device can be used by simply folding and placing the notes on it.

As each Indian currency note has a different length and width, the template has grooves on it to help the blind understand the different widths and lengths of the notes.

The template has steps which indicate length and the small notch on the side helps measure width. This is a simple solution to a big problem for the visually impaired. Notes like the 50, 100 and 500 are broader than 10 and 20. They all have the same width, but become longer as the denomination goes higher.

The simple rule to remember while using the device is, the higher the step, the higher the denomination. The 5 rupee note is too small for the template. The 1000 rupee note, covers the template completely. Those two notes are the easiest to identify.

On the sides of the templates, there are even Braille inscriptions to help even more. The Tiffy template costs around Rs. 2 for Paul to make. With raised funds, Paul wants to make it available to all the 15 million blind people in India for free.

Image Reference: TheBetterIndia