Student Invents Edible Lollipop Pregnancy Test for Blind Women

For millions of blind and low-vision women, finding out if they're pregnant has always meant giving up their privacy to someone else.

Sneha Rao, a 27-year-old design student at Carnegie Mellon University, just changed that. She invented Tact, an edible lollipop that allows blind women to detect pregnancy completely on their own.

The innovation came after Rao read about Joanne Hewitson, a blind woman whose TikTok went viral in 2024. Hewitson shared something deeply personal: she had never been able to take a pregnancy test alone. She always needed her sister to read the results.

"It wasn't just about inconvenience," Rao explains. "It was about moments where privacy is a safety need." She points out that someone in an abusive relationship might have no one they can trust with such sensitive information.

Here's how Tact works: the user places the flat lollipop in their mouth. If they're pregnant, raised bumps appear on both sides of the lollipop, reacting to hCG, the pregnancy hormone. The result is felt through touch, not seen.

Nearly nine million Americans live with vision disabilities, and 54 percent are women and girls. Traditional pregnancy tests rely entirely on seeing lines or color changes, making them impossible for blind users to read independently.

Some blind women use apps like Be My Eyes or Seeing A.I. for help, but these require sharing photos or videos with AI systems or strangers. "Not being able to read the result independently forces us to give up our privacy," says Stephanie Enyart, a disability rights leader at the American Foundation for the Blind.

Rao initially considered creating a universal reader for standard tests. Her advisor, Wayne Chung, pushed her to think differently. Any tech solution would create a data trail, whether through an app, device, or server.

"The moment you photograph a pregnancy test and send it anywhere, you've created a record," Rao says. "For someone whose reproductive health needs to be completely private, that's not a small thing."

The edible design was inspired by spy products that self-destruct and leave no trace. After use, the lollipop can simply be eaten or dissolved, eliminating any evidence.

Why This Inspires

Rao's invention addresses something bigger than pregnancy tests. It highlights how healthcare design often overlooks the needs of disabled women entirely, treating their privacy and autonomy as optional rather than essential.

The fact that this solution came from listening to one woman's story on TikTok shows how powerful it is when people share their experiences. Hewitson's honesty sparked a chain reaction that could help millions.

Tact represents a shift in thinking about accessibility, not as an add-on feature but as a fundamental design principle from the start.

One student listened, and now blind women everywhere might soon hold their most private moments in their own hands.