Ambition Italy for Inclusion and Accessibility, a project to promote the values of diversity

ROME. Promote the values of diversity in our Country through the digital world, so that nobody is left behind: this is the heart of the project launched by Microsoft, "the Ambition of Italy for inclusion and accessibility", which is a strategic alliance with companies, institutions and associations in order to develop together new projects to support accessibility and inclusion in daily life and in company, leveraging on new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing.

the Ability Garden, Amplifon, ANSA, Barilla, EY, Foundation, Accenture, Adecco Foundation, the Vodafone Foundation, the Digital World Foundation, the Generali Group, Jointly - welfare-shared, Kulta-Brains Rebel, LinkedIn, UniCredit, Techsoup, D-Value and Wunderman Thompson are the first companies that have joined the alliance, and that therefore they commit to pooling expertise and experience to plan and implement it with Microsoft initiatives to help people with disabilities.

The project is based in particular on the development of initiatives that leverage the latest technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing, to help people in the common daily operation and offer them the opportunity to better express their potential also in the professional life. The actors involved have the opportunity to attend training sessions, hackathon, meetings and shares best practices, with the aim of promoting the development of projects for the inclusion and for the reduction of barriers in some specific areas.

In the area of "Products and Services" will be able to explore new mode of development, creation or transformation of products and services of common use, also digital, to make them accessible to groups of users different: one example is the Xbox the Adaptive Controller, a controller that facilitates and enhances the experience of the game, designed by Microsoft in conjunction with the community of players with disabilities to meet the needs of players with reduced mobility. On the front of "World of Education" will be possible, on the one hand, working with the students and teachers on projects of accessibility and, on the other, to enhance educational programs inclusive. In particular, Microsoft has already started a programme of education in schools in collaboration with the Italian Dyslexia Association to raise awareness among students, teachers and families on how new technologies can transform the diversity into a real value growth for all. Within the "World of Work" there will be the opportunity to improve the advantages that today's technology offers in order to foster greater professional inclusion and the enhancement of resources with disabilities, through innovation, can express their full potential. Already for a long time, the company of information technology with headquarters in Redmond available natively in your Microsoft suite 365 inclusive solutions to help the employees of the company, from reading capabilities and immersive for the visually impaired, in the service of subtitles, and real-time translation for the hearing impaired or for those who speak different languages during the virtual meetings with Teams.

In Italy there are currently over 3 million people with disabilities, a number that grows exponentially if we also consider the problems hidden or temporary. Each of us, in a certain moment of their life, is facing this type of challenge, which is a temporary disability because it is fractured a leg in a car accident, or situational, because you necessarily have to reply to an email and you have both hands free. Also, only a little more than 30% of disabled people between 15 and 64 years in employment. A alarming and symptomatic of the difficulty for these categories to become fully integrated in today's society.

new technologies can offer tremendous opportunities to people with problems: the AI, in particular, can help you be more connected with others, through tools that facilitate reading, listening and writing, thus enhancing the human capacity and helping to acquire new skills.

"In Microsoft - explains Barbara Cominelli, Director of Marketing & Operations at Microsoft Italia - we work always to make our products and services 'accessible by design', which is designed to be used by all already at the stage of their design. This allows us to give an important contribution to the people so they can live and work as all. We don't want to face this challenge alone. It is for this reason that we have created an alliance where I hope soon to be added to many private and public. Together, thanks to digital, we can make our Country more inclusive and build a better future for all".

The initiative is part of the Ambition of Italy, the larger project of training, update and retraining of skills in key digital started in September 2018, with whom Microsoft has already trained 500 thousand people and that aims to involve by the end of 2020 more than 2 million young people, students, NEETS and professionals throughout Italy, with the objective of contributing to employment and growth in Italy, by reducing the phenomenon of skills mismatch-the gap between the skills required by the labour market and those actually available.

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