Aniruddha Kadam
On this page In short
  1. In short
  2. Who it’s for
  3. Diagnoses across the 48-child register
  4. Only 2 of 14 AAC apps ship Marathi
  5. A design tool therapists can use before the app exists
  6. How we’ll know it worked
  7. Paper
  8. What’s still open
  9. References and credits
Ongoing

Chetana AAC

A free, fully offline Marathi communication app for the ~50 children at Seva Sahayog's Chetana centres who have little or no speech. So far, a 193-word vocabulary, 12 written decisions and a working design tool, with no child's data collected.

Published 20 Jan 2026 · Updated 22 Sep 2026

Tap words to make a sentence
Try it: tap words to build a Marathi sentence the way a child would, for example मी + पाणी + हवं, “I want water”. Tile positions never move, so the hand learns where words are.
My part
your exact part (lead? which pieces did you build?)
Team
4 students + Chetana's therapists confirm the team list
Timeline
2026 → now
Status
Ongoing
Links
Seva Sahayog Foundation repo / design-tool link
Skills
Edge and low-resource systems, TypeScript

In short

Problem
A child who thinks in Marathi has no free, offline, Marathi-first way to speak, and their therapist has no record of what they can do.
What I did
one line on exactly what you did
Result
A 193-concept Marathi core vocabulary (90 core, 91 fringe, 12 openers); 12 decision records; 40 numbered questions delivered to Seva Sahayog Foundation; printable A4 boards Chetana can use before the app ships.
How to check
The design tool, the schema and the decision records public links

Who it’s for: 44 of 48 children on the register are 10 or younger

Jan 2026

Chetana’s Sahakar Nagar register lists 48 children. We analysed a de-identified copy, using aggregates only.

  • 44 / 48 are 10 or younger, inside the early-intervention window
  • ≈ 3 in 4 have a diagnosis for which aided AAC is evidence-based
  • 23 / 48 have school enrolment recorded at all
Architecture: child app and local store on the device; therapist dashboard syncs later
Offline-first: the child side never needs a connection.

Diagnoses across the 48-child register

Feb 2026

Bar chart of diagnoses across the 48-child register
Diagnoses after normalising spelling variants. Families come from 29 localities across south Pune.

Only 2 of 14 AAC apps ship Marathi

Mar 2026

What works

  • Fixed tile positions, so muscle memory builds
  • Colour-coded word classes
  • Speech only when the child presses play

What fails our children

  • Only 2 of 14 ship Marathi at all
  • Premium apps cost US$150–550 and are English-first
  • The free tier is touch-only: no switch scanning or eye gaze

This is not a translation problem. Marathi changes the word itself, not just the word order.

A design tool therapists can use before the app exists

Sep 2026

Before building the app we built a tool that shows exactly what the child will see and lets therapists change it live: drag words between cells, switch Present and Design modes, take snapshots, attach notes to a role (never a name), and export printable A4 boards.

Useful before the app exists The printable boards mean Chetana can use paper communication boards immediately.

Core board: a grid of colour-coded Marathi word tiles on a phone
The core board as designed. Word classes are colour-coded, and tile positions never move.

How we’ll know it worked: 4 gates, none measured yet

Oct 2026

GateTargetMeasured
Tap-to-sound latency, cheapest target phone, 20 taps< 150 msmeasure
Full function in airplane modepasstest
Golden sentence patterns (मला पाणी हवं …)100%run
Cold start, RAM, size on a 2 GB phonewithin budgetmeasure

The real success criterion, after six months: Chetana changes the vocabulary itself, without asking anyone.

Paper: Marathi word forms in AAC

Jul 2026

Two paper abstracts drafted. title, authors, venue and status

What’s still open

Nothing here has been verified by Chetana’s therapists yet, and it has not been tested with children. One of 67 tracked questions has an answer so far.

References

  1. ARASAAC pictograms (CC)
  2. Seva Sahayog Foundation

Credits. The Chetana team confirm names and Chetana's therapists.

How I used AI tools. one line on how you used AI tools