Winners of first ‘ICT 4 Inclusion Challenge’ in Africa announced

Winners from Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa present their progressive remedies for inclusive education and learning

Paris, France – December 3, 2021

The ICT 4 Inclusion Challenge (ICT4IC) aims to form inclusive education and learning for individuals with disabilities in Africa. The a few winning groups ended up offered with their awards now during the ceremony which took place just about, livestreamed from Atos’ headquarters in Bezons and its workplaces in Munich. The competitiveness observed 202 apps with about four hundred participants from 37 countries about the globe compete.

The competitiveness was structured by Atos and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf for German Federal Ministry for Financial Cooperation and Advancement (BMZ) together with the Make-IT Alliance. Digital inclusion stands at the heart of Atos’ raison d’etre and materializes into Atos’ expertise portfolio, with specific remedies aiding individuals with momentary or long lasting disabilities to perform devoid of barriers in the digital place of work.

The goal of the challenge is to build digital innovations which are developed to improve access to education and learning for all those with disabilities in Africa. The groups ended up asked to submit a digital or complex innovation (idea, mock-up or evidence-of-thought (PoC)) that gives or enhances access to education and learning for kids, youths and/or adults with disabilities in Africa. This could be a digital product or application digital assistive systems an idea to elevate recognition for inclusive education and learning employing digital systems and accessibility remedies for on-line finding out environments.

Immediately after an preliminary to start with spherical in which 10 groups ended up selected by 24 judges to show up at a 2-week digital bootcamp, the nine gurus robust remaining jury panel, built up of Atos executives as properly as gurus from GIZ, the non-public sector, civil modern society and worldwide organizations, selected a few finalists. These are:

• one^st prize and competitiveness winner: ‘Vinsighte’, Nigeria

Vinsighte is a examining program / application that helps make use of Artificial Intelligence to help the visually impaired to go through conveniently. It will work by scanning by texts on textbooks and examining the textbooks aloud to the visually impaired user. The staff won €6,five hundred.

• 2^nd prize: ‘Virtual E&T’, South Africa

This customized app gives available and affordable Virtual Education and learning and Schooling Portal for individuals with intellectual disabilities. The staff won €2,five hundred.

• 3^rd prize: ‘Talking Charts’, Kenya

This solution addresses the accessibility challenges of details visualization for the individuals with visual impairment and blind individuals by synthetic speech and auto-captioning. The staff won €1,000.

Each participant in every single of a few winning groups was awarded a devoted 3-thirty day period mentorship application at Atos starting up in January 2022, as properly as financial prizes and an option to pitch to be element of Atos Scaler, the Group’s accelerator application.

Commenting on these benefits, Udo Littke, Head of Atos in Central Europe said “Congratulations to our winners and to all of our contestants! I’m blown-absent by the creativeness and quality of the entries.Entry to education and learning is 1 of the finest barriers to inclusion for kids, young folks and adults with disabilities in Africa and digital innovations can support to defeat this challenge by taking away barriers to education and learning for folks with disabilities. We’re quite proud to persuade the new technology to support form the inclusive education and learning in Africa”.

The judging panel was diligently selected to present knowledge in the fields of education and learning, Information and Conversation Know-how (ICT), innovation, accessibility, and disability inclusion as properly as regional African perspectives. The competitiveness entrants essential to be long lasting citizens of an African country or non-citizens teaming up with an African firm, proving that their solution is not however readily accessible on the market place and encouraging that individuals of disabilities are possibly element of the staff or provided into the merchandise enhancement method.

To obtain out additional, make sure you go to https://ict4inclusionchallenge.net/ .

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Photograph one: Oluwatomisin Kolawole from “Vinsights” Photograph 2: Santie Terreblanche , Thomas Bezuidenhout, Taryn Du Toit, Mpilo Khumalo from “Virtual E&T” and Photograph 3: Eric Maina Wamugu from “Conversing Charts”

About Atos

Atos is a international chief in digital transformation with 107,000 employees and once-a-year income of about € 11 billion. European quantity 1 in cybersecurity, cloud and high-functionality computing, the Team gives customized conclusion-to-conclusion remedies for all industries in 71 countries. A pioneer in decarbonization expert services and items, Atos is committed to a protected and decarbonized digital for its clients. Atos is a SE (Societas Europaea), detailed on Euronext Paris and provided in the CAC forty ESG and Up coming twenty indexes.

The intent of Atos is to support design the future of the information area. Its knowledge and expert services guidance the enhancement of information, education and learning and investigate in a multicultural solution and lead to the enhancement of scientific and technological excellence. Throughout the globe, the Team permits its buyers and employees, and members of societies at massive to reside, perform and build sustainably, in a protected and protected information area.

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Laura Fau | [email protected] | +33 6 73 64 04 18 | @laurajanefau