The digital world needs to be accessible to everyone. We can bridge the digital divide and equip all groups of society, including persons with disabilities and specific needs, by taking advantage of ICT, and by enabling capacity building in digital skills.
The main drivers behind the framework for implementing a Regional Initiative for Europe are based on the following values:
- Accessibility
- Affordability
- Skills Development
- Digital Inclusion
- Sustainable Development
This regional event for Europe was being jointly organized by the Telecommunication Development Bureau (BDT) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and European Commission (EC), and hosted by United Nations Vienna in December 2018.
Telecommunications and the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have vital importance for people's empowerment and in promoting accessibility policies. The event highlighted the relevance of joining efforts to remove barriers and enable human development and social inclusion of persons with disabilities and special needs and other groups of people with specific needs, either through cooperation, programme and projects development, generating partnerships, and training.
Within the event, the ITU Office for Europe organised its Regional Contest on Innovative Digital Solutions.
Results of the contest are now announced, celebrating made-in-Europe ICT.
Winner:
EVA (@Vision_EVA; http://www.eva.vision/): Extended Visual Assistant. EVA is voice controlled eyewear for the visually impaired. EVA's Artificial Intelligence recognises objects, texts, signs and verbally describes what it sees.
Runners-up:
PEDIUS (@PediusCall; https://www.pedius.org/en/video/). Pedius is a communication system helping Deaf and Hard of Hearing people to make phone calls, using voice recognition and speech synthesis technologies.
FEELIF (@FeelifOriginal; https://www.feelif.com/). Feelif is a multimedia tool for blind and visually impaired people which enables them to feel shapes on standard touchscreen.
"We are looking forward to addressing in the near future issue of 5G Impact on ICT Accessibility. We hope to have you on board as well as other visionary stakeholders", Jaroslaw Ponder, Head of Office for Europe, ITU.
#ICT4SDG #WSIS #Disability #Accessibility
