18 Countries Participating in ‘Global it challenge for youth with disabilities 2018’

Around 100 youth with disabilities (visual disability, hearing disability, locomotor disability and intellectual disability/developmental disorder) from 18 countries namely, India, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Korea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, UK and UAE are participating in the “Global IT Challenge for Youth with Disabilities, 2018” here today. This three day event was inaugurated by the Minister of State for Social Justice & Empowerment, Krishan Pal Gurjar yesterday. It event is organised by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in association with Rehabilitation International Korea and their associated partner LG Electronics from 9th to 11th November, 2018. The award ceremony of the event will be held tomorrow i.e. on 11th November, 2018.

The objective of the Global ICT Challenge for Youth with Disabilities is to leverage IT skills among youth with disabilities and also to spread awareness about the application of Information and Computer Technology (ICT) in enhancing the quality of life of persons with disabilities especially in Asia-Pacific region. It is a capacity building project that helps youth with disabilities to overcome their limitations and challenge themselves for a better future by providing them with access to ICT and related experiences, improving their ability to leverage information and social participation while setting ICT agendas for participant countries related to disabilities and boosting international cooperation and exchange.

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India has nominated twelve youth with disabilities to participate in the event. These youth with disabilities have been selected on the basis of the National IT Challenge conducted by the Ministry through NIT, Kurukshetra in June, 2018. India has been participating in the event since 2013 and has been winning awards ever since. Last year the event was held in Vietnam.

The competition is focused on strategies for strengthening IT skills of youth with disabilities as a critical requirement for enhancing their access to information and communication services on an equal basis with others. It is being held with a total of four events including e-Tool Challenge to evaluate the skills of using the MS Office programme and e-Life Map Challenge to evaluate the online information search ability in specific situations.