Marhaba everyone!
(*Marhaba is an arabic expression of ‘Hello’)
My name is UnSeok Choi from the Global Marketing Team of Dot. I’m in charge of introducing Dot products and services to global customers. Also, my role as the Global Marketing Team is to gather and analyze local market feedback and needs, and deliver them to other teams such as Product Planning and Software.
In short, my main job is to be a messenger between customer and company.
AccessAbilities Expo 2022, the largest accessibility fair in the Middle East, was held During Nov 15th~17th. Due to the Covid pandemic, the exhibition was organized for the first time in 3 years, and welcomed by 10,000 visitors and 250 companies from 50 countries around the world. At the expo, Dot has successfully introduced ‘Dot Pad’, a tactile graphic display and ‘BarrierFree Kiosk’, a kiosk for everyone. I may not be able to deliver the full excitement, but let me share the stories and feelings I've experienced at the expo.
Since Dubai is one of the most famous tourist cities in the world, there has been an increasing interest and reaction to ‘BarrierFree Kiosk’.
Filip Verstraete, President of Tourism of the Deaf in Belgium, said BarrierFree Kiosk could be very helpful to deaf people and specifically to deaf travelers. He said he’s looking forward to seeing more kiosks in public places. With Dot, it was a precious time to imagine all the barriers of disability torn down in the future.
We introduced Dot pad with advanced software services. First of all, the function that automatically translates text-to-braille received favorable reviews from experts and local VIPs with the mention that it is the most needed and practical function in the education environment for the blind students.
Secondly, the function automatically converting image files to tactile graphics received a great response from the blind users. Personally, I felt that it was a good opportunity to feel the infinite possibility of digital tactile graphics.
At the expo, I was fortunate to make a blind friend who has a 4 month-old baby. He was very surprised and happy to “see” his son’s picture converted into a tactile graphic displayed on the Dot Pad. Looking at his bright, happy smile made me imagine how much more the Dot Pad could bring joy to the blind in the future.
I’d like to conclude my story by sharing the most memorable episode at the expo.
Next to our booth, an abstract painter from Jordan named Suheil Baqaeen was showing his booth with the artistic program where blind people could recognize the color by adding fragrance to it. Mr. Suheil Baqaeen visited our booth, tried out the Dot Pad, and at once, suggested a collaboration to improve the accessibility of the blind to art.
It was all of a sudden. I thought it was interesting and accepted his proposal.
During the collaboration, blind visitor drew a whale with fragrant paints and I took a picture of it and transferred the picture into tactile graphics on the Dot Pad.
It was a spontaneous collaboration, but seeing the audience enjoying it so much, I personally felt proud and I decided to work harder so that the Dot Pad can be used for blind people in various fields in the future.
Through this AccessAbilities Expo, we successfully introduced our product and service in Middle-East Asia. And we started preparing to enter the new global market.
I hope to continue my work, offering user experience with the Dot Pad all over the world so that blind people can learn and access tactile graphics and feel a new level of excitement. Go Dot!