“Once it becomes a norm to have 3-4 inclusive items on every playground I achieve my mission to include all children into the play, regardless of their abilities.”
My name is Eszter, I’m Aron’s mum (7) who was born with epilepsy. I have learnt about Aron’s condition when he was 1. Since then a lot of interventions happened to him from brain surgeries to daily therapies, all which are not part of most kids’ childhood. But even if I wanted to provide him the “normal” childhood e.g. visiting local playgrounds with his older brother I could not have succeeded. There was literally not one item on the playgrounds that were safe for Aron. I was frustrated. We had enough burdens already and it was just not fair that he was excluded from play provision. I felt I had to do something.
I started to talk to friends in similar situations and soon we begin to think about inclusive playgrounds, inclusive designs and how to achieve them. It took us a lot of determination and work to get MagikMe Inclusive Play where it’s now: 2 EC-certified inclusive playground products, a multi-player seesaw and an elevated sandbox installed in over 60 playgrounds in Hungary, some of them relatively close to us. One can find all the inclusive playgrounds’ addresses on our website.
Today I can bring my sons to some close-by playgrounds where Aron can play safely. What’s more he can play with his brother or other non-disabled kids on the same equipment, sharing the fun of playing together.
Once it becomes a norm to have 3-4 inclusive items on every playground I achieve my mission to include all children into the play, regardless of their abilities.
Find out more about the work of MagikMe to extend children’s access to inclusive playgrounds by reading the factsheet.
“Sharing and learning from each other has been a key to change making and teamworking. Thanks to Meet me at MoMA, museums have increased people’s quality of life.”
My name is Halldóra Arnardóttir, a PhD Art Historian. From 2008, I have co-directed the project Art and Culture as Therapy for Azheimer in Spain and in Iceland. As a consequence of Meet me at MoMA, I initiated a similar -although contextualised- program in the Museum of Fine Arts in Murcia in 2009, a first of its kind in Spain. Later, in 2015, I initiated a museum program in the National Gallery of Art in Iceland and Reykjavík Art Museum in 2016. Before establishing these programs, today’s participants did not attend these museums but visited them without any direct objectives – merely to pass the time, if they did. Now, empathy is shown on all levels between the museums’ educators and participants with the help of the artworks. New bridges are being built and others are reinforced between the different actors. To increase the museum network in Iceland, I published a book in September 2017 where Francesca Rosenberg was invited and participated in a symposium to explain MoMA’s program in detail and train the participants. She showed an extraordinary way of connecting and drew out key elements to elaborate a conversation from the artwork at the National Gallery of Art.
Sharing and learning from each other has been a key to the changemaking and teamworking. Thanks to Meet me at MoMA, museums have increased people’s quality of life who suffer the Alzheimer disease, recovered lost memories and allowed the echo of their laughter fill their rooms. Now the aim is to reach out even further and create tools that enable museums to take their collections to day centres for more advanced individuals – they too need new bridges to express their emotions.
Read more about the variety of programmes offered by MoMA to increase the accessibility of the museum and its collections by reading the factsheet.
Ruderman Family Foundation have joined forces with MIT Sloan School of Management to create a unique new program for persons with and without disabilities – “LEAD20@MIT Leadership in the Digital Age”. This program will equip influencers and leaders from all over the world with theories and strategies in the fields of digital leadership, networking and entrepreneurship, and help them become high impact social influencers.
The program will take place between May 12-17, 2019 at MIT University in Cambridge, MA.
Participants will receive a full scholarship from the Ruderman Family Foundation that will cover all costs and expenses: tuition, travel to Boston and back, lodging and accommodation.
This is a selective program and only 25 people will be admitted. Participants will receive a certificate from MIT at the end of the program.
The Disability Rights Fund (DRF) have announced the opening of a request for proposal for applications from DPOs in Rwanda, and Pacific Island countries: Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
The broad objective of the Fund is to support persons with disabilities around the world to build diverse movements, ensure inclusive development agendas, and achieve equal rights and opportunity for all. DRF has granted more than USD 28 million to 331 different organisations in 36 countries since 2008.
Depending on the size and type of organisation, grants are available from USD 5,000 to 100,000. Check out the DRF website for more information and to make your application!
Prashant Naik, I am a public-sector bank employee having low vision. I am passionate about technologies for the blind as well as latest news on tech and social activities happening in the disability sector.
My need to have a low vision friendly news app is totally fulfilled by NewzHook. App provides me ease and convenience to read and keep me updated daily. It has simple and clutter free interface. Since its launch in March 2016, I am hooked to this accessible news app. NewzHook is accessible for deaf, blind and surely for low vision persons like me. It’s high contrast and large font features work perfectly. They truly enhanced app’s accessibility.
Another awesome feature of NewzHook is news are structured in diverse categories. I regularly check news from disability, inclusion and accessibility areas. And yes, the ‘event’ section keeps me updated with coming up events well in advance. NewzHook sign language news is such a unique service for deaf. Team NewzHook, you guys are doing fantastic job. Thank you so much.
Read more about how NewzHook is breaking down barriers to accessing the news by reading the factsheet.
“Pedius’ use of advanced speech recognition technologies has made an incredible impact for those it has reached in the Deaf community, especially myself.”
My name is Gabriele and I am Deaf. One night, I was driving home by myself and was involved in a car accident. Normally when one has an accident, they exchange information with the other driver. This was not my case. Once the other driver discovered I was Deaf, he left me stranded on the side of the road without any means of communication. My only option was to wait patiently until somebody passed by. Scenarios such as these were my biggest fear.
Now with Pedius, I do not have to rely on anything or anyone other than the comfort of my mobile smartphone. I have the privacy and freedom of a normal phone call without the use of a third party interpreter, available 24/7. The application allows flexibility for the user as a call can begin either by speech or text, and in every case when your contact speaks, subtitles of their message will appear on your device in real time.
Pedius’ use of advanced speech recognition technologies has made an incredible impact for those it has reached in the Deaf community, especially myself. In today’s world, every person relies on their mobile phone and for the first time I am able to do the same. I am able to have independence with just an application. My only wish for Pedius’ growth is the ability to keep improving technologies, expand as far and wide as possible, and keep adding services to help people like me.
Learn more about how Pedius allows poeple who are deaf to make phone calls without needing an interpreter by reading the factsheet.
“Equal, inclusive access empowers everyone to achieve.”
My name is Lucy Bennett, and I’m the senior designer for AMAC Accessibility. For the last year and a half, I’ve been responsible for AMAC’s marketing media and work to make sure we’re promoting ourselves with the same level of accessibility that our services provide. I also began working as a leader in the design community to push for more accessibility and inclusion in the field for people with disabilities.
I’ve always had the desire to be a leader in the design community, but didn’t feel I had the skill or unique experience to contribute. Once I began the ICT Accessibility MOOC and learning about universal design and the ways designers can benefit from the accessible ICT practices, I found a cause to be passionate about and a unique viewpoint to share with emerging designers.
Equal, inclusive access empowers everyone to achieve. Through taking the ICT Accessibility MOOC, I’ve been able to teach others about accessibility and how it can improve the human condition. I was invited to be a member of AIGA’s Diversity & Inclusion task force; shortly after receiving that invite, I was also asked to participate in AIGA’s first multi-chapter design thinking workshop, relaunching the EMERGE 2.0 programming to help emerging designers.
Through the EMERGE 2.0 programming, we’ll craft an accessible framework that will be used nationwide to empower a new generation of designers, giving them new opportunities for growth and leadership.
Read more about the ICT Accessibility Open Online Course and how it is promoting accessibility be reading the factsheet.
What a few months it has been! When we opened the nominations back in May we thought we had a rough idea of what to expect. Hopefully we’d be fortunate to receive amazing, inspiring nominations from around the world and yes, we would expect most of them to come in just before the deadline! But what we weren’t ready for was the sheer quality of the field this year. Now, more than ever, it is becoming increasingly difficult to say no to some of these amazing projects.
This year, we have received a whopping 318 nominations from 78 countries. That is an increase of over 20% on what we received when we last visited this topic four years ago.
We are well under way with reading and evaluating the nominations, alongside our experts around the globe. This is possibly the best part of our work – Where we can learn about what the incredible community is doing around the world to improve the lives of persons with disabilities.
This year we have been reading about wheelchair basketball in Afghanistan and teaching political processes in Sweden. We have read about grassroots leadership for women with disabilities in Cambodia and inclusive elections in Kenya. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Somehow our experts have to help us bring the field down to around 70 by the conference in February. I do not envy them!
Thanks to everyone who has made a nomination. We will be getting in touch with you individually over the coming weeks to let you know how your application has been doing, so please bear with us!
To read more about the nomination statistics, check out our press release for the nomination phase.
Congratulations to the three incredible winners of this year’s Holman Prize, from LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. The Holman Prize for Blind Ambition awards $25,000 to projects that embody a sense of adventure. Three exceptional blind individuals will set off around the world on adventures they never imagined possible. This year, the winners will promote blind empowerment in Mexico, complete a dramatic oceanic triathlon, and develop the first online community for blind travel.
The Zero Project is excited to announce a new opportunity for a limited period. We are looking for an experienced and self-motivated freelance author to join us on a short-term project between August and October 2018. We are looking for a native English speaker who will work on a sub-project of the Zero Project. The role will involve writing approximately 50 ‘fact-sheets’, similar to the ones published on the Zero Project website. The factsheets will be written based on existing material that the Zero Project will provide, with no research required.
If you are interested in the role please send your CV/experience to w.kainz@zeroproject.org and tell us why you would like to work with us.
The Story of Eszter, co-founder of MagikMe
“Once it becomes a norm to have 3-4 inclusive items on every playground I achieve my mission to include all children into the play, regardless of their abilities.”
My name is Eszter, I’m Aron’s mum (7) who was born with epilepsy. I have learnt about Aron’s condition when he was 1. Since then a lot of interventions happened to him from brain surgeries to daily therapies, all which are not part of most kids’ childhood. But even if I wanted to provide him the “normal” childhood e.g. visiting local playgrounds with his older brother I could not have succeeded. There was literally not one item on the playgrounds that were safe for Aron. I was frustrated. We had enough burdens already and it was just not fair that he was excluded from play provision. I felt I had to do something.
I started to talk to friends in similar situations and soon we begin to think about inclusive playgrounds, inclusive designs and how to achieve them. It took us a lot of determination and work to get MagikMe Inclusive Play where it’s now: 2 EC-certified inclusive playground products, a multi-player seesaw and an elevated sandbox installed in over 60 playgrounds in Hungary, some of them relatively close to us. One can find all the inclusive playgrounds’ addresses on our website.
Today I can bring my sons to some close-by playgrounds where Aron can play safely. What’s more he can play with his brother or other non-disabled kids on the same equipment, sharing the fun of playing together.
Once it becomes a norm to have 3-4 inclusive items on every playground I achieve my mission to include all children into the play, regardless of their abilities.
Find out more about the work of MagikMe to extend children’s access to inclusive playgrounds by reading the factsheet.
The story of Halldóra Arnardóttir, PHD art historian
“Sharing and learning from each other has been a key to change making and teamworking. Thanks to Meet me at MoMA, museums have increased people’s quality of life.”
My name is Halldóra Arnardóttir, a PhD Art Historian. From 2008, I have co-directed the project Art and Culture as Therapy for Azheimer in Spain and in Iceland. As a consequence of Meet me at MoMA, I initiated a similar -although contextualised- program in the Museum of Fine Arts in Murcia in 2009, a first of its kind in Spain. Later, in 2015, I initiated a museum program in the National Gallery of Art in Iceland and Reykjavík Art Museum in 2016. Before establishing these programs, today’s participants did not attend these museums but visited them without any direct objectives – merely to pass the time, if they did. Now, empathy is shown on all levels between the museums’ educators and participants with the help of the artworks. New bridges are being built and others are reinforced between the different actors. To increase the museum network in Iceland, I published a book in September 2017 where Francesca Rosenberg was invited and participated in a symposium to explain MoMA’s program in detail and train the participants. She showed an extraordinary way of connecting and drew out key elements to elaborate a conversation from the artwork at the National Gallery of Art.
Sharing and learning from each other has been a key to the changemaking and teamworking. Thanks to Meet me at MoMA, museums have increased people’s quality of life who suffer the Alzheimer disease, recovered lost memories and allowed the echo of their laughter fill their rooms. Now the aim is to reach out even further and create tools that enable museums to take their collections to day centres for more advanced individuals – they too need new bridges to express their emotions.
Read more about the variety of programmes offered by MoMA to increase the accessibility of the museum and its collections by reading the factsheet.
Join the unique LEAD20@MIT program!
Ruderman Family Foundation have joined forces with MIT Sloan School of Management to create a unique new program for persons with and without disabilities – “LEAD20@MIT Leadership in the Digital Age”. This program will equip influencers and leaders from all over the world with theories and strategies in the fields of digital leadership, networking and entrepreneurship, and help them become high impact social influencers.
The program will take place between May 12-17, 2019 at MIT University in Cambridge, MA.
Participants will receive a full scholarship from the Ruderman Family Foundation that will cover all costs and expenses: tuition, travel to Boston and back, lodging and accommodation.
This is a selective program and only 25 people will be admitted. Participants will receive a certificate from MIT at the end of the program.
Find out more by visiting the website.
Disability Rights Fund 2018 Request for Proposals
The Disability Rights Fund (DRF) have announced the opening of a request for proposal for applications from DPOs in Rwanda, and Pacific Island countries: Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.
The broad objective of the Fund is to support persons with disabilities around the world to build diverse movements, ensure inclusive development agendas, and achieve equal rights and opportunity for all. DRF has granted more than USD 28 million to 331 different organisations in 36 countries since 2008.
Depending on the size and type of organisation, grants are available from USD 5,000 to 100,000. Check out the DRF website for more information and to make your application!
Deadline closes on 22nd August 2018!
The story of Prashant Naik, public sector bank employee and NewzHook user
“Access to news has never been so easy!”
Prashant Naik, I am a public-sector bank employee having low vision. I am passionate about technologies for the blind as well as latest news on tech and social activities happening in the disability sector.
My need to have a low vision friendly news app is totally fulfilled by NewzHook. App provides me ease and convenience to read and keep me updated daily. It has simple and clutter free interface. Since its launch in March 2016, I am hooked to this accessible news app. NewzHook is accessible for deaf, blind and surely for low vision persons like me. It’s high contrast and large font features work perfectly. They truly enhanced app’s accessibility.
Another awesome feature of NewzHook is news are structured in diverse categories. I regularly check news from disability, inclusion and accessibility areas. And yes, the ‘event’ section keeps me updated with coming up events well in advance. NewzHook sign language news is such a unique service for deaf. Team NewzHook, you guys are doing fantastic job. Thank you so much.
Read more about how NewzHook is breaking down barriers to accessing the news by reading the factsheet.
The story of Gabriele, a Pedius app user
“Pedius’ use of advanced speech recognition technologies has made an incredible impact for those it has reached in the Deaf community, especially myself.”
My name is Gabriele and I am Deaf. One night, I was driving home by myself and was involved in a car accident. Normally when one has an accident, they exchange information with the other driver. This was not my case. Once the other driver discovered I was Deaf, he left me stranded on the side of the road without any means of communication. My only option was to wait patiently until somebody passed by. Scenarios such as these were my biggest fear.
Now with Pedius, I do not have to rely on anything or anyone other than the comfort of my mobile smartphone. I have the privacy and freedom of a normal phone call without the use of a third party interpreter, available 24/7. The application allows flexibility for the user as a call can begin either by speech or text, and in every case when your contact speaks, subtitles of their message will appear on your device in real time.
Pedius’ use of advanced speech recognition technologies has made an incredible impact for those it has reached in the Deaf community, especially myself. In today’s world, every person relies on their mobile phone and for the first time I am able to do the same. I am able to have independence with just an application. My only wish for Pedius’ growth is the ability to keep improving technologies, expand as far and wide as possible, and keep adding services to help people like me.
Learn more about how Pedius allows poeple who are deaf to make phone calls without needing an interpreter by reading the factsheet.
The story of Lucy Bennett, senior designer for AMAC Accessibility
“Equal, inclusive access empowers everyone to achieve.”
My name is Lucy Bennett, and I’m the senior designer for AMAC Accessibility. For the last year and a half, I’ve been responsible for AMAC’s marketing media and work to make sure we’re promoting ourselves with the same level of accessibility that our services provide. I also began working as a leader in the design community to push for more accessibility and inclusion in the field for people with disabilities.
I’ve always had the desire to be a leader in the design community, but didn’t feel I had the skill or unique experience to contribute. Once I began the ICT Accessibility MOOC and learning about universal design and the ways designers can benefit from the accessible ICT practices, I found a cause to be passionate about and a unique viewpoint to share with emerging designers.
Equal, inclusive access empowers everyone to achieve. Through taking the ICT Accessibility MOOC, I’ve been able to teach others about accessibility and how it can improve the human condition. I was invited to be a member of AIGA’s Diversity & Inclusion task force; shortly after receiving that invite, I was also asked to participate in AIGA’s first multi-chapter design thinking workshop, relaunching the EMERGE 2.0 programming to help emerging designers.
Through the EMERGE 2.0 programming, we’ll craft an accessible framework that will be used nationwide to empower a new generation of designers, giving them new opportunities for growth and leadership.
Read more about the ICT Accessibility Open Online Course and how it is promoting accessibility be reading the factsheet.
Zero Project Receives 318 Nominations from 78 countries
What a few months it has been! When we opened the nominations back in May we thought we had a rough idea of what to expect. Hopefully we’d be fortunate to receive amazing, inspiring nominations from around the world and yes, we would expect most of them to come in just before the deadline! But what we weren’t ready for was the sheer quality of the field this year. Now, more than ever, it is becoming increasingly difficult to say no to some of these amazing projects.
This year, we have received a whopping 318 nominations from 78 countries. That is an increase of over 20% on what we received when we last visited this topic four years ago.
We are well under way with reading and evaluating the nominations, alongside our experts around the globe. This is possibly the best part of our work – Where we can learn about what the incredible community is doing around the world to improve the lives of persons with disabilities.
This year we have been reading about wheelchair basketball in Afghanistan and teaching political processes in Sweden. We have read about grassroots leadership for women with disabilities in Cambodia and inclusive elections in Kenya. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Somehow our experts have to help us bring the field down to around 70 by the conference in February. I do not envy them!
Thanks to everyone who has made a nomination. We will be getting in touch with you individually over the coming weeks to let you know how your application has been doing, so please bear with us!
To read more about the nomination statistics, check out our press release for the nomination phase.
Congratulations to the 2018 Holman Prize Winners!
Congratulations to the three incredible winners of this year’s Holman Prize, from LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired. The Holman Prize for Blind Ambition awards $25,000 to projects that embody a sense of adventure. Three exceptional blind individuals will set off around the world on adventures they never imagined possible. This year, the winners will promote blind empowerment in Mexico, complete a dramatic oceanic triathlon, and develop the first online community for blind travel.
Find out more by visiting the LightHouse website.
We look forward to hearing about their adventures in the coming year!
The Zero Project is looking for a freelance author!
The Zero Project is excited to announce a new opportunity for a limited period. We are looking for an experienced and self-motivated freelance author to join us on a short-term project between August and October 2018. We are looking for a native English speaker who will work on a sub-project of the Zero Project. The role will involve writing approximately 50 ‘fact-sheets’, similar to the ones published on the Zero Project website. The factsheets will be written based on existing material that the Zero Project will provide, with no research required.
If you are interested in the role please send your CV/experience to w.kainz@zeroproject.org and tell us why you would like to work with us.
Please share this with your own networks!