Smart Accessibility Awards launched for outstanding smartphone applications

To promote the development of IT applications designed for older people and people with disabilities the Smart Accessibility Award has been launched. The Smart Accessibility Awards are a new competition that will award outstanding smartphone application across four different categories. The competition is run by the Vodafone Foundation. The programme is supported and co-organized by AGE Platform Europe, a European network for people aged 50+, and the European Disability Forum (EDF), an NGO that represents 80 million Europeans with disabilities.

The competition will award the best smartphone application across four different categories as follows:

1. Social participation: Applications which help users to participate actively in today's society and benefit from the facilities that the new technologies can offer, whatever their age, disability and/or capacity
2. Independent living: Applications which help users to be more autonomous and perform daily tasks independently
3. Mobility: Applications which enable users to move around more freely and safely using the whole range of transport modes. It can also refer to the use of mobile devices to be guided in unknown environment (e.g. using GPS option, etc).
4. Wellbeing: Applications which improve the users' health and as well as overall feeling of wellbeing

The competition is open from 14 June 2011 to 15 October 2011. All qualifying entries will be evaluated in November by a jury, consisting of representatives from AGE Platform Europe, European Disability Forum and Vodafone Foundation. Twelve finalists will be selected and requested to present their application before the final jury in Brussels in early December at a live final, where the four overall winners will be chosen. The total prize fund of the €200k will be split equally between the four winners.

More information: http://developer.vodafone.com/smartaccess2011/