In 3rd millennium, globalization with expanding intercultural learning has brought people closer, eliminating cultural and religious differences for a borderless world. It’s an opportunity but also a challenge for the disabled. With the development of technology, the visually impaired can communicate with the world more easily, yet there are still many limitations preventing them from integrating into society.
The Universal Declaration of Human Right (1948) states, “Everyone has the right to Education”, and 5th constitution in Vietnam (2013) also made the right to education theoretically more concrete. Still, a majority of minor groups cannot access proper to education, especially the visually impaired.
Follow the 2014 Vietnam Intercensal Population & Housing, there are 300,000 visually impaired in Vietnam (source Ministry of Plan & Investment). Only 0.0042% blind has access to popular formal education and 30% in center of non-formal education through Blind Associations. To address that problem, Open Road aims to build an online library of audio books and its application on smartphone (Android; iOS; Windows Phone OS) for the visually impaired in Vietnam, by which they can read books through listening online/offline. Open Road brings books and non-conventional education to blind people raising their ability of integration.