Convobridge Creating Endless Possibilities for People with Disabilities

 ’‘The idea of Convobridge —"Conversation Bridge”—was born in an environment where the possibilities are endless, but the ways of implementation are limited. We think that it is not a person with a disability but the environment that limits you to doing what you want and can do, "says Giorgi Bukia, Tech Lead at Convobridge.

As Giorgi Bukia explains, in today's environment, we encounter partially sighted and visually impaired people who have difficulty integrating into society. They have obstacles in socialization, communication, and the process of receiving education, which makes them feel isolated from society.

The app is an opportunity to socialize, express individual protest, meet new people, grapple with news and challenges, and get education easily. This is a compact idea united under one startup called Convobridge. Convobridge's main goal is to create a social charge that will increase the social impact of all those individuals who have the opportunity to self-actualize but do not have enough means:

Our goal is to simplify self-realization with a companion application that converts text messages or documents of any format into voice signals. As for the braille writing (screen) device, it allows a person who knows braille to use a smartphone or laptop more easily and comfortably. The app, the locators, and the braille device are a package of possibilities to use that should be unlimited.

Your startup will be improving the lives of people with disabilities. Tell us more about your service.

The ConvoBridge app allows partially sighted and visually impaired people to hear any text message automatically when they receive it, and they can also adjust the speed of the sounds and choose different voice options so that it doesn't become boring for them, which we will gradually refine. Moreover, it transforms the documents into audio text and listening sources.

The app also comes with a braille reader. (Screen), a device that simplifies the communication process. The package also includes headphones, which are the most important part of the application. In case you lose your phone or forget where you put it, if you don't touch the screen for 10 minutes, when you have the application open, it will automatically start transmitting voice messages in the form of a call or a song.

Tell us about your team and run us through your working day.

Giorgi Bukia and Giorgi Zoidze are the heads of the Convobridge group. The team has experience in startup management and the tech industry, which helps the team to hold the idea and deliver it correctly.

Each meeting in the team first begins with getting to know the news, generating ideas, describing and analyzing events, which trains analytical thinking and keeps us updated with everyday life. After that, we have a short break and start the work process.  It is important that each link in the group has its task written down and fulfills it within the deadline.

In the afternoon, we have a big break, after which there is an hour of board games to make the work process more attractive. In board games, the most ideas are born, which we then consider seriously. Then we have a small break again and update the work process until the end of the day.

Congratulations on getting into the Social Impact Awards finals! What was the key to your success?

The key to the success of the idea itself is, first of all, timing; the realization of one's idea at the right time and place, as well as support from the community, innovation, relevance, and feasibility.

What is the app’s current stage of development, and what's ahead?

Convobridge is a new start-up and therefore the application prototype is being created and tested. The start-up owns the intellectual (human) resources and currently has developed the application design and functionality-tasks that require integration. In the short term, the team plans to debug and develop the existing application, which will allow us to get feedback and observe user experiences to further refine it, in which case financial resources are very important. In the long-term vision, we plan to exploit the local, regional, and global markets by creating additional benefits.