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ITU-Samsung Regional Competition for Latin America and the Caribbean “Mobile Applications for Accessibility”



The ITU’s Applications for Accessibility Award is a competition to promote the creation and development of new solutions involving mobile applications for the Android platform, focused on accessibility.


This award is primarily focused on developing innovative and creative solutions to benefit persons with disabilities, bringing more social inclusion and interaction, comfort and quality of life to their daily routine through mobile technologies.


It is expected that new concepts of mobile applications to be used by people with sensory, mobility and cognitive disabilities are developed, which may involve services on the web or be integrated into mobile devices including wearables, peripherals or hardware devices developed by the participant. It is mandatory that the mobile application be developed for Android operating systems for use on smartphones or tablets.


The solutions proposed and developed by the participants of the competition will be analyzed by a Judging Contest Committee, composed of ITU representatives, experts from different areas related to mobile products and services, representatives of organizations of persons with disabilities, and also by special guests.


Each member of the Judging Committee will assign a score to each proposed solution, according to the following criteria: Creativity, User’s Experience and Solution Development.

The Invitation

To enter the contest please submit either a proposed mobile solution focused on accessibility or submit information about the mobile solution you have developed. While the creation of a solution prototype is not a requirement, submission of documentation on the solution would facilitate the evaluation of the “technical feasibility of the solution” requirement (see details below).

The contest will accept proposals from individuals and teams. Detailed information is available at the following webpage, where interested participants may also register until 05 July 2015:

https://sites.google.com/site/acessibilidadeuiten/


Period for solution development

Registered participants will have until 13 August 2015 to submit their proposal using the document template available at the Contest webpage. Only proposals using the template will be accepted. Additional materials such as application drawings, videos, navigable prototypes, executables (APK's) and slide shows, can also be sent along with the required template.

Competitors are required to maintain an ethical conduct and may be subject to disqualification - so please note that members of the competing team must control the majority of the intellectual property rights of the app submitted to the competition and must account for the majority of the work and resources put into the creation and prototyping of the app.

Participation of employees, or persons related to ITU and/or SAMSUNG is prohibited

The ITU will not provide the resources for the solution to be developed. Participants are responsible for seeking the necessary resources to develop the idea.

The classification

The Judging Contest Committee, according to the number of registry received, will make a previous analysis of the proposals and will assign grades to all the solutions presented within the deadline established, that involves a mobile app for Android platform, according to the table of criteria with their respective weight and grade.

Criteria

Specification

Weight

Grade

Very low

Low

High

Very high

Creativity

· Innovation-originality of the idea

  • Solution not yet published in app stores

40

55

89

144

233

Solution Development

  • Technical feasibility of the solution
  • Quality and finishing of the solution presented

20

8

13

21

34

User's Experience

  • Size of the target public benefiting from the solution
  • Impact of the solution in user's life
  • Mobile application with good use experience

40

1

2

3

5

The sum of all grades obtained by each proposal, multiplied by its weight - in accordance to the formula below - will be considered the final score.

FINAL SCORE = Creativity x 40 + Development x 20 + Experience x 40

The solutions will be sorted in descending order of their FINAL SCORE, and the highest FINAL SCORE will be declared winner.

Omitted cases will be defined by the Judging Contest Committee

The Award

The ITU will award the winner or two members of the winning team with a fellowship to participate in the ITU Regional Event"Accessible Americas II: Information and Communication to ALL ", which will be hosted by Colombia from 4 to 6 November 2015*. Venue of the event will be informed in due time. The fellowship will cover air ticket from origin city to the city of the event and return to the city of origin, in economy class and the most direct route, as well as a daily amount to cover the cost of lodging, meals and local transportation during the period of the event.

Both the ITU and SAMSUNG, whenever appropriate, will promote the winning solution in national and international events organized in the framework of their mandate, thereby increasing business opportunities to the author/s.

(*) In case the Winner is from Colombia, the fellowship offered by ITU may be reallocated to another ITU event, outside Colombia, which will be defined and informed by ITU