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GLOBAL • HEALTHCARE
Seedstars Global
MARCH 17, 2020
According to the World Bank research, one billion people, or 15% of the world’s population, experience some form of disability, with prevalence higher in developing countries.
Between 110 million and 190 million people, one-fifth of the total, experience not mild but significant impairment. Very often, people with disabilities remain marginalized in many societies and have limited or no access to quality education, healthcare treatment, or active social life. So we asked ourselves, how can we make our societies more inclusive, empathetic and comfortable for everyone to pursue quality in life?
This year, together with Mada – Assistive Technology Center Qatar, a private institution for public benefit, we launched the ICT Accessibility Prize to attract innovative solutions that provide digital access and assistive technologies for people with disabilities globally and can be applied in the MENA region.
We managed to find dozens of outstanding startups, including Lazarillo and Talov which show that everything should be and can be accessible. Every month, Lazarillo, an intelligent guide application for blind and visually impaired, helps more than 17,000 users get to their final destination on time by navigating the city through voice messages, while Talov is on a mission to make technology more accessible to people with hearing and visual impairments.
In this episode, you will have a chance to explore the topic in more detail and meet the winners of the ICT Accessibility Prize by MADA – Talov and Lazarillo.
Additional resources to explore more on this topic:
Interview with Lazarillo’s CEO René Espinoza Jimenez
‘Tech Should Serve All of Humanity’: Talov
Talov at MIT Innovators Under 35 LATAM (Spanish)
Story of Talov (Interview at WebSummit)
PROUDLY PRODUCED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
