With the powerful virtual tethers we feel binding us to our smartphones and gadgets, we can easily forget that some technologies provide freedom to others, such as low-vision and blind people.
“We create devices that promote independence,” Alejandro Erick Franco, CIO and vice president of Information Technology at American Printing House for the Blind (APH), said in an interview at SAP Sapphire. This includes APH’s Monarch tablet-style braille reader, which also renders images via equally finger-friendly “tactile graphics.”
There’s also APH’s older navigation app that can help low-vision or blind users find restaurants and venue facilities, or pinpoint any of the booths at, say, a massive enterprise software conference spanning the entire Orange County Convention Center.
That innate spirit of innovation also led APH to develop eBRF, a revolutionary new braille file standard that has the potential to standardize both digital braille and tactile graphics — and slash wait times for physical braille textbooks — leading Fast Company to name APH one of its Most Innovative Companies in education for 2024.
After all, “empowering people” is part of APH’s mission. That is why accessibility at the heart of its solutions, according to Franco. And accessibility within the software is why APH runs SAP, as well as hopes to be on the cutting edge of AI development at the company.
Designing accessibility into everything
According to Franco, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition will help APH and other organizations employ low-vision and blind individuals who, until now, might not have been able to use a computer. So, it is vital that websites and user interfaces, for instance, render in an inclusive format that enables these workers to accomplish tasks on their own.
“The software is designed with accessibility in mind,” Franco told SAP during an interview for its Winning Insights series. “If you are a person that’s low-vision or non-sighted, you can follow it — and follow it in an organized fashion that makes it really easy to navigate.”
This tech-enabled independence also includes work that previously depended on help from a sighted person, such as requisition forms, according to Franco.
“Now, they can do it alone,” he said. “They’re going to be able to navigate better without a cumbersome system, they’re going to be able to run their reports.”
Franco isn’t talking out of turn. He and APH understand their customers’ pain points.
Understanding the business case
Though tech is a big part of APH’s business, it’s also a manufacturing facility that produces books, textbooks, and tests in braille and large print, Franco noted. The Kentucky-based nonprofit also creates independent living products.
So, APH also understands the intricacies of supply chains, production, and compliance. Myriad modules within SAP S/4HANA have proven to be significant enablers for APH’s business, according to Franco.
“We can take an order; we can order material,” Franco said in another SAP video. “We can produce it, we can ship it, we can invoice – but also [offer transparency] for the [nonprofit] reporting that we have to do.”
Looking forward, APH has its sights set on AI.
Embracing the future with AI
“We want to use what SAP is going to be launching in AI and also educate the AI – train the AI so we can benefit from it,” Franco said. “We would love to have an AI system where if, let’s say, a school needs a textbook for a sixth grader from biology, we can use AI to translate that textbook into braille.”
AI could also help APH improve eBRF and create tools to help develop an even better braille format, according to Franco. Combined with SAP S/4HANA and GROW with SAP, which helps midsize organizations quickly and reliably adopt cloud ERP, APH wants to expand how eBRF and other technologies can help low-vision and blind users achieve their independence.
“Anybody can use the software — if you’re low vision, if you are in the blindness field, or don’t see,” Franco said. “We utilize SAP in our manufacturing facility; now, we would like to see other organizations utilize the software, if it’s service, if it’s manufacturing, if it’s creating something.”
Working for new opportunities
Franco said there are very few ERP software companies that develop for low-vision and blind users, and few organizations that hire low-vision and blind employees. APH is looking to change that by helping technology reach the next level, putting accessibility at the center of design, training, and utilization.
“By using SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud, they can employ somebody who’s blind, somebody who’s low-vision, and give them a better work environment,” Franco said. “Give them the opportunities that they don’t have today.”
