
Aboriginal communities in Australia acquire skills for digital storytelling
The SharingStories Foundation works with more than a dozen Aboriginal communities across Australia to support children, young people and elders to record ancient creation stories in new digital formats. Through the SharingStories programme, participants acquire digital skills – including storyboarding, audio recording,…
Nigeria and IBM partner up for digital skills development drive
The government of Nigeria and IBM have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost digital skills development in the country. Among the objectives of the MoU are to equip citizens with digital skills with globally recognized certifications, lower the…

Digital inclusion in the innovation district model: the case of Chattanooga, Tennessee
According to the Brookings Institution, more and more cities are using the innovation district model, in which anchor institutions, companies, startups, business incubators, and accelerators are clustered together in dense urban areas to spur economic development. Such districts, however, can risk…

Educational tool for children with visual impairments to learn how to code launched in UK
A new educational toy to help young students with vision impairment learn how to code has been launched on the UK market by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB). Code Jumper was designed by Microsoft and developed by American Printing…

Older persons face digital exclusion despite enthusiasm for new technology, Australian study finds
Older people in Australia are on the whole enthusiastic about embracing new technology, but continue to be digitally excluded because service providers and the larger community exclude them from the digital experience, a new report by YourLink and PwC has…

Mobile app offers on-demand American Sign Language interpretation
Jeenie is an American language interpretation app which offers deaf and hard of hearing users an alternative to traditional telecommunication relay services (TRS) in the form of on-demand American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation. An interpreter will appear within a minute of…

BT and Google team up to offer free digital skills training to SMEs in the UK
SMEs are being offered the opportunity to acquire digital skills for free through a partnership between BT and the Google Digital Garage. At the training events, businesses receive advice on how to build a digital marketing plan; grow a business…
Centre for excellence in universal design and assistive technology to be established in Egypt
Egypt’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has partnered with the Japanese Assistive Technology Development Organisation (ATDO) to establish of a joint centre for excellence in universal design and Assistive Technology at the National Academy of Information Technology for Persons with Disabilities (NAID) to improve the digital…
Online opportunities to learn about web accessibility
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in collaboration with UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education(UNESCO IITE) is launching a free online course on web accessibility on 28 January 2020 on the edX platform. This English-language Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), which is open…

2019 EQUALS in Tech Awards winners announced at IGF in Berlin
The winners of the 2019 EQUALS in Tech Awards were announced on 27 November 2019 at an awards ceremony hosted by the EQUALS Global Partnership during the annual Internet Governance Forum in Berlin. The EQUALS in Tech Awards celebrate successful innovative solutions aimed at closing the…