Safaricom unveils braille watch for visually impaired Mpesa users

TARGETED: Clients queuing for an M-Pesa agent along Baluchi street Mombasa.Photo/Elkana Jacob
TARGETED: Clients queuing for an M-Pesa agent along Baluchi street Mombasa.Photo/Elkana Jacob

Persons living with visual impairment and blindness can now independently

access Mpesa messages in braille.

This follows Safaricom's Friday announcement that customers who have lost their sight can now conduct financial transactions with confidentiality through the DOT Braille watch.

The watch was unveiled in a partnership between Safaricom and DOT Incorporation.

The Dot Braille Watch is an innovation that is an equivalent of a smart gear that displays SMS notifications in braille hence enabling a visually impaired person to read.

The watch brings all the notifications from any app on a user’s smartphone directly to their wrist. Every text message received on the smartphone is instantly translated to Braille.

Users can then read the message comfortably with the intuitive touch controls on the watch face.

It also provides direct access to all the practical features a user needs such as the alarm clock, timer, stopwatch, time and date,and who is calling without seeing it.

The device has customisable auto-scroll features for the visually impaired.

Users can also directly save their Mpesa or any other important messages to check again later.

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