Working on smartphone revolution: soon to be accessible to all?
Date
Sections
6 December 2011 /// The European Disability Forum, AGE Platform Europe and Vodafone has announced the winners of the inaugural Vodafone Foundation Smart Accessibility Awards at a ceremony attended by the European Commissioner for Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes and Vodafone Group Chief Executive Vittorio Colao. Working on the martphone revolution
The mobile internet is central to the daily lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world as an increasing number of consumers turn to smartphones for messaging, social networking, access to information and entertainment and many other services.
Smartphones offer significant benefits for the more than 1 billion people who live with some form of disability. Applications targeting the specific challenges faced by disabled and older people - for example, text-to-speech services for the visually impaired - can directly enhance quality of life. However, relatively few mobile application developers focus on the potential that smartphone apps have to help people with disabilities play a more active and independent role in society.
The Vodafone Foundation partnered with AGE Platform Europe and the European Disability Forum (EDF) to devise and deliver the Smart Accessibility Awards: an international competition which rewards developers who have the creativity, vision and social commitment to harness the power of smartphones and the mobile internet in support of disabled and older people’s needs.
Read more about the winning apps and full media release on EDF website
Aurélien Daydé
Communication and media officer
European Disability Forum | nothing about us without us
Square de Meeus 35 | 1000 Brussels Belgium
T +32 2 282 46 04 | M +32 485 64 39 93 | F +32 2 282 46 09