The Hindu : Business : IBM opens centre for differently-abled

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 01, 2007
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IBM opens centre for differently-abled

Staff Reporter

To offer easy access to technology

NEW DELHI: IBM India on Friday launched its first ever “Human Ability and Accessibility Centre” that will make technology and information easily accessible to people with visual, cognitive hearing and motor disabilities in India. Located at IBM’s India Research Lab in New Delhi, the new centre will cater to the diverse requirement of government bodies, corporates, academic institutions, researchers and NGOs.

Addressing a press conference, IBM Managing Director (India and South Asia), Shanker Annaswamy, said the centre would provide accessible technologies to unleash the value of the untapped talent pool of differently-abled people and contribute enormously to raising individuals’ overall quality of life.

According to Mr. Annaswamy, “India faces a growing need for inclusive development that fundamentally depends on addressing social, economic and physical disadvantages and create opportunities for every individual to realise the potential of their abilities. Globally, and in India, IBM champions accessibility needs by bringing technologies and innovations that empower the differently-abled and socially disadvantaged through initiatives such as the human ability and accessibility centre.”

He said IBM had already developed some innovative solutions such as easy web browsing for the visually impaired, “WebAdopt2Me” for people with cognitive impairments or low vision, disability simulator “IBM aDesigner”, Hindi speech recognition and English assessment tool “Sensei”.

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