Telangana to organize Assistive Technology Summit on Dec 3

The Telangana government will be organizing the first ever state-led Assistive Technology Summit 2020 on December 3, the International Day for Disabled Persons.

The Telangana State Innovation Cell (TSIC) will organize the summit with the theme “Assistive Technology (AT) for all – making affordable assistive technology accessible to everyone”. The aim is to lay the foundation for a robust AT-ecosystem in the state.

It is estimated that over a billion people are impacted worldwide with a disability, of which only 1 out of 10 can access assistive technology due to lack of awareness and high cost.

The summit will be bringing together key players across the nation in the AT space, such as researchers, innovators, investors, social enterprises, NGOs, expert users, and government organisations to discuss building affordable solutions, easing the access to solutions for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), and collaborations to sustain the ecosystem further.

The stakeholders who will be part of the summit are: T-Works, LVPEI Center for Innovation, Artilab Foundation, AssisTech Foundation, Social Alpha, BVRIT Hyderabad College of Engineering, Youth4Jobs, Unmukt-The Senior Hub.

The summit will comprise an AT exhibition, keynote sessions, success stories, and panel discussions to build more solutions in the space of AT.

One of the major features of the summit will be the launch of the AT exhibition that will see innovators from school to college-level and entrepreneurs across India with a major focus on Telangana, who have devised affordable solutions for PwDs. The exhibition will mark the interaction between government and innovators leading to building an ecosystem.

Principal Secretary for information technology, industry and commerce, Jayesh Ranjan on Tuesday launched the poster of the summit. He said PwDs and their attendants suffer a lot in transacting basic issues as a part of their day to day living. “In the last few decades, there has been a substantial advancement in science, technology, and knowledge regarding aids and appliances for the PwDs. Telangana, a state known for nurturing and adopting innovative ideas, is attempting to motivate innovators and makers to design more such products and solutions for the benefit of PwDs. We hope to showcase the best of the lot in the Assistive Technology Summit,” he said.

Chief Innovation Officer of TSIC, Ravi Narayan said that the state has been a pioneer in building ecosystems and December 3 will multiply it with AT Summit. “This Assistive Technology Summit by TSIC is the largest Summit in AT Space where the brightest of the minds are coming together from all over India to build a unique Assistive Technology focused ecosystem in Telangana. We believe all the stakeholders in the space such as NGOs, academia, research organizations, Investors, Innovators, and the Government can add value to each other’s work through cross-sectoral collaborations through mechanisms such as Exhibition, Panels, and Success stories.”

–IANS