Voda Awards Celebrate Apps to Help the Disabled

Vodafone has announced the winners of the inaugural Vodafone Foundation Smart Accessibility Awards. The company says it wanted to recognise the ways in which smartphones can benefit the more than 1bn people who live with some form of disability globally.

The Vodafone Foundation partnered with AGE Platform Europe and the European Disability Forum to devise and deliver the Smart Accessibility Awards, an international competition which rewards developers who find ways of using smartphones and the mobile internet to support disabled and older people’s needs.

The winning smartphone apps, whose developers will share the €200,000 (£172,000) prize fund, are: Help Talk, in the Wellbeing category; Wheelmap, in the Mobility category; Zoom Plus Magnifier, in the Independent Living category; and BIG Launcher, in the Social Participation category.

Vittorio Colao, Vodafone Group CEO says: “Vodafone is committed to doing all we can to empower consumers of all ages and abilities. We want to extend the smartphone revolution to as many communities as possible.”

Winning applications will be available to Vodafone customers using Android smartphones.