The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications has launched, jointly with the Ministry of National Solidarity, Family and Women Condition, as well as the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Startups and Micro-enterprises, a “National competition to develop mobile software and applications for people with specific needs” aimed for all innovators and developers, representatives of startups and individuals, in order to sustain the latest technological innovations and encourage projects holders of software dedicated for people with specific needs “with a motor, hearing, visual, mental and cognitive disability” by providing them with technologies to assist them, facilitate their daily life and support their social integration, contributing, as such, to develop a global information society in Algeria and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
The theme of the first edition was about “the development of mobile software and applications for people with specific needs and autistic children.”
The themes of the competition mainly relate to:
- Audio and tactile techniques: It is about software, device and tools models helping people with visual, mental or learning disabilities with voice instructions.
- Software and devices of sign language processing for hearing-impaired people: It is about translation and simultaneous interpreting applications of sign language in addition to various learning applications to teach sign language to members of the society in general.
- Applications and devices using Braille technique for the visually impaired people: It is about applications for learning the Braille technique for the sighted people in charge of visually impaired people as well as the applications for transfer of written documents in Braille format on computers to imprint them in Braille printers, …etc.
- Game applications, education and awareness programs: It is about simulation programs of the daily life of people with specific needs of all kinds, in a bid to raise the awareness of individuals without disabilities.
- Applications for raising awareness for autistic children: through their capacity-building in terms of interaction and communication, improvement of their behavioral, motor and social skills to enable them, as such, to convey their feelings and needs easily to others.
Competition Results
23 project holders participated in this competition. Their projects were assessed by a special committee which delivered the following results:
1st position:
A medical application project aimed for people with reduced mobility, to help them communicate and get in touch with others through the eyes.
2nd position:
An application project aimed for people with difficulties or who are incapable of using their mobile phone screen with their own hands.
3rd position:
An application project named “Absirni” for visually impaired people to help them cross over the road safely via their mobile phone to recognize the colour of the traffic light.
The second edition of the national competition has been dedicated to “software and mobile applications for sign language use aimed for people with hearing disabilities”, in a bid to contribute in making teaching and learning sign language easier and in reinforcing the linguistic identity for hearing impaired people to integrate them in the information society.
The themes of this competition concern all the software and applications using sign language, such as:
- The application of translation and simultaneous interpreting of sign language, its transformation into a text and vice versa for hearing impaired people.
- The transfer of sign language into spoken voice and vice versa.
- The several educational applications allowing teaching sign language.
29 candidates took part in this competition , who submitted their projects to be assessed by a special committee which delivered the following results:
1st position:
A multifunctional application project via mobile phone for sign language use by hearing impaired people.
2nd position:
An application project called “ASYEL”.
3rd position:
An application project called “OUIE”.
To enhance investment initiatives in the ICTs field, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications has offered the winners of both editions the opportunity to benefit from an effective support from the National Agency for the Promotion and Development of Technology Parks, for a year, to develop their projects.