There are more than 1 billion people in the world with some or the other form of disability. Which is about 15% of the world’s population. Out of which many are curable while many are incurable. And today we are going to talk about a disorder which is incurable and that is Stuttering.
Stuttering is also known as stammering, a speech disorder. In this, the flow of speech is disrupted. Though stuttering is incurable, it is possible to reduce the disfluencies in the speech through various speech therapy exercises.
There are 80 million people in the world affected by stuttering.
But there are also people who are seeking solutions to help people with stuttering. Where this trio came to the rescue, 3 friends who developed Stamurai App.
Stamurai App provides speech therapy for over 10 million stuttering people in India. The App has the following features:
Tools to practice the exercises customized for each user.
Instructional videos to teach speech therapy exercises.
Speech therapist for real-time consultations.
A self-help group, with P2P practice and support.
AI-based speech analysis for real-time feedback.
This App is developed by three friends, Anshul Agarwal, Harsh Tyagi, and Meet Singhal. All of them are IIT Delhi graduates and two of them shutter. They have been shuttering since childhood and that had a huge impact on their lives.
They come up with the idea that maybe they can codify the entire experience and in the process make speech therapy accessible, affordable, and of higher quality for everyone.
The traditional 1-to-1 speech therapy is expensive which costs over INR 40,000, which is also prone to relapse(over 80%) and inaccessible to most people.
And Stamurai solves this by its tech-enabled speech therapy approach. Because of the automation, they are able to reduce costs to less than 10% of the current cost. Since it is tech-based, the solution is infinitely scalable reaching even the remotest regions in the world. And since the app is always accessible, speech therapy is available 24×7 and never really has to end, decreasing the chances of relapse.
When the user first starts to use the app, a few questions are being by the user to understand how stuttering has affected them and their lives. And based on their answers they get a customized, guided training plan. The user can practice for a minimum of 15 minutes a day and as they progress with their speech therapy, the plan adapts as required. Users are provided with scientific assessment as well as daily statistics which can help to keep track of their journey.
Not only this, but they also have various other tools such as guided meditation, breathing techniques, group practice sessions, and much more to keep up with their speech therapy in the long run.
The App is also been featured on the App store and has won the Procus SICA challenge, Social Alpha Assistive Technology Challenge, and ZS Prize.
