A Bangladeshi activist for the disabled, Vashkar Bhattacharjee, and Chinese ICT company Tencent will be awarded the Unesco/Emir Jaber al-Ahmad al Jaber al Sabah Prize for Digital Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities in a ceremony at Unesco headquarters in Paris.
Bhattacharjee is a leading Bangadeshi advocate who works with local, national and international partners to produce resources for learners with disabilities, and to train teachers in the use accessible reading materials. He and his colleagues also set up a network of employers that provide fair work opportunities to persons with disabilities, said Unesco.
Bhattacharjee has successfully developed a pioneering dictionaries in Bangladesh for people with visual, print and learning disabilities, and a special programme to help the disabled set up their own businesses through e-micro credit support, according to Unesco's statement.
Tencent, a private Internet-based technologies and cultural enterprise, has won recognition for its outstanding contribution to the empowering and improving the quality of life of people with disabilities by using inclusive digital technologies to provide greatly enhanced access to information, the statement said.
The annual prize, supported by Kuwait, acknowledges outstanding contributions to the empowerment of persons with disabilities through the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to access information and knowledge.
The award ceremony is accompanied by a programme of events including concerts, exhibitions by Asian artists, a round-table discussion and a film screening to mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities which falls on 3 December.
This year’s theme for the Day is the empowerment of persons with disabilities, and ensuring inclusiveness and equality, part of the UN's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, that pledges to "leave no one behind,” the statement noted.
