Thursday, 24 September. Renata Deszo-Dinnyes, doctoral student at Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest is the winner of this year’s EDF-Oracle digital accessibility scholarship (6,500 EUR) for students with disabilities.
This scholarship was launched in 2015 by the European Disability Forum (EDF) and Oracle to promote digital accessibility in Europe. It aims to raise awareness on the topic among European universities and encourage uptake of accessibility in their Information Technologies and Computer Sciences curricula. In the long run, we hope to see a substantial pool of digital accessibility specialists in Europe to drive inclusive and participatory innovation.
During today’s online award ceremony, Humberto Insolera, Member of EDF Executive committee and this year’s scholarship jury, thanked Oracle and members of jury, noting that “with this scholarship, we aim to recognise outstanding students with disabilities and support their journey towards becoming experts in digital accessibility. We believe that no one better than them knows how crucial it is to design for all, so that everyone in our societies benefits from innovation and technological progress.”
Ms Dezso-Dinnyes’ study focuses on user experience related to digitally manufactured objects, for example using a 3D printer to manufacture a prosthetic based on computer data. She received clear preference by the jury, with majority of the members giving her the highest scores, especially appreciating the involvement of persons with disabilities in the innovation process.
“As a doctoral student, my main interest is to explore philosophical and strategic possibilities to understand the concept of co-Ability, and generate critical and new insights to our value system in human centred societal challenges. Design and Disability culture need to use the different strengths to develop shared knowledge and practices to deal with the complexity of problems”, Ms Dezso-Dinnyes said.
Kent Boucher, Senior Director, Accessibility Program Office at Oracle concluded that “The EDF and Oracle collaboration is an example of a commitment to inclusion. This scholarship illustrates Oracle’s commitment to creating accessible technologies and products that enhance the overall workplace environment and contribute to the productivity of our employees, our customers, and our customers’ customers.”
EDF-Oracle e-Accessibility Scholarship jurors included: Humberto Insolera, Member of EDF Executive committee; Atidzhe Alieva-Veli, MEP, Member of the Disability Intergroup, European Parliament; Axel Leblois, President and Executive Director of the Global Initiative for Inclusive ICT (G3ICT); Shadi Abou-Zahra, Strategy and Technology Specialist Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C); and Kent Boucher, Senior Director, Accessibility Program Office, Oracle.
Learn more about EDF-Oracle e-accessibility scholarship (subject to modification)