Accessibility Design Competition 2023 (ADC 2023) is an annual student competition organized by RMIT University Vietnam to encourage innovative ideas that promote inclusion for people with disabilities in the workplace.
With the slogan “Make Change. Make Possible”, ADC season three attracted the participation of more than 110 students from the Asia-Pacific region and 40 experts from different industries as consultants, coaches and judges for the competition.
ADC 2023 is a two-month event that includes a variety of activities, from expert-led masterclasses and workshops to mentoring and networking sessions. This series of activities equips students with the knowledge and skills they need to develop solutions to promote inclusion for people with disabilities and achieve success in the competition.
Students participating in the competition not only gain knowledge about the lives and real-life challenges of people with disabilities in the workplace, but also learn how to create a practical and sustainable business plan for their proposed prototype product.
According to the Organizing Committee, out of 36 teams registered to participate in ADC 2023, the 6 best teams won tickets to the final round to present their ideas directly to the audience. These teams are mainly from universities in Vietnam.
In the end, Team ATP, consisting of three students from RMIT University Vietnam, won the overall competition thanks to their application designed for people who stutter or have difficulty communicating with their voices in everyday life. Team ATP consisted of two Bachelor of Communication students, Pham Khanh Phuong and Nguyen Ha Thanh, and Bachelor of Information Technology student Nguyen Quoc An.
This group of students also won the “Microsoft APAC AI for Accessibility Hackathon 2023” in Vietnam. This is a competition organized by Microsoft in Asia - Pacific to find initiatives using artificial intelligence to help improve the daily activities of people with disabilities.
The ATP team came up with the idea to build AI Speech Companion after reading many studies and sharing stories showing that people who stutter face many forms of discrimination and disadvantages in the workplace. The application aims to help people who stutter fully prepare for important activities such as presentations or interviews.
ATP Team Leader Pham Khanh Phuong explained that the application can support users in writing content and provide them with an environment to practice expressing that content. People with stuttering problems will feel less stressed and more confident when they go to work.
“AI Speech Companion is designed for the entire communication journey, even providing emergency support when users feel anxious or restless during communication activities,” student Pham Khanh Phuong added.
Commenting on the ATP team’s prototype, Sofitel Saigon Plaza General Manager Mario Mendis, a member of the ADC 2023 jury, said: “This is a great support mechanism. I think it can help a lot of people by providing them with a personal speech therapist.”
Another member of the ADC 2023 jury, Anne-Cathrine Koch, Head of Digital and IT Operations Asia Pacific at Schaeffler, commented: “I really like the user interface design and user experience. The seamless integration of the different AI functions is also impressive.”
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