AssisTech Foundation concluded its first edition of ATF Awards to recognize startups and enablers bettering the lives of people with disability

assistech foundation awards

National, September 8, 2021: AssisTech Foundation, India’s leading assistive technology ecosystem, completed its first edition of the AssisTech Foundation Awards (ATF Awards). With more than 120+ applications across 25+ cities, it’s a first-of-its-kind honor in India to recognize and celebrate groups and individuals, empowering over 1 Billion people with disabilities, to live better lives. Eminent speakers like India’s Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA), Prof. Vijay Raghavan, Prof Rishikesha Krishnan (Director, IIM Bangalore), and Legendary cricket player and ATF brand ambassador Rahul Dravid graced the event with their presence, along with highlighting their thoughts about the ATF’s mission and work done by them till date.

The few prominent winners are Tinkertech Labs that won the award in Best Start-up for innovation category, Trestle Labs was adjudged as the Most Impactful assistive technology startup, Avaz. inc won a trophy in Jury’s choice for best start-up innovation, IIT Madras won the award in the best assistive technology initiative among educational institutes, etc. The goal of the award ceremony is to create a platform for shared experiences, shared knowledge, and a heightened sense of awareness, where intent and conversations translate into action. Along with this, ATF awards aim to bring together start-ups, government, educational institutes, corporates, investors & NGOs and recognize their hard work in building a disabled-friendly world by leveraging assistive technology.

ATF’s brand ambassador Mr. Rahul Dravid unveiled the trophy, designed by Titan, inspired by the Zen Buddhism concept of the wabi-sabi philosophy of appreciating the perfectly imperfect life. Along with this, ATF announced Cohort 4 Start Up Acceleration Program – where they team up with start-ups & organizations to develop and disseminate assistive technology products. For more information or to apply for Cohort 4 Start Up Acceleration Program, visit https://atflabs.org/apply/.

Speaking on the success of the event, Prateek Madhav, Co-founder and CEO, AssisTech Foundation (ATF), said, “Over 1/7th of the world’s population suffers from some kind of disabilities, yet this segment continues to be underserved. ATF Awards is an important step to raise awareness and empower people with disabilities. The first award edition received tremendous response from Startups, for People’s Choice award 23,915 people voted online for 37+ startups in just 11 days. We thank to all the support we received. Each and every organization that participated in the ceremony has done some outstanding work in the field of assistive technology. While this year the event was virtual, we hope to have it offline next time. Our journey towards creating an inclusive future has only just begun and we look forward to making it brighter and accessible for all.”

Start-ups and Enablers (NGOs, Corporate Social Responsibility – CSR, Educational Institutes, Investors, and Government departments) who have leveraged assistive technology to empower people with disabilities nominated themselves for the award(s). Every nomination went through rigorous multistage evaluation to reach the top positions that were placed in front of a distinguished jury. The jury decided the winner for each category based on a predefined framework and criteria.

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