Memorandum of Understanding, strategic importance, with a significant impact on society, was signed under the 89th TIF by the Minister of Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligence Dimitris Papastergiou and Vassilis Charmandaris, President of the Foundation for Technology and Research (FORTH).
The aim of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Digital Governance and FORTH is to strengthen Catholic accessibility in digital public services and promoting digital integration, especially for the People with disabilities (Disabled).
The Ministry of Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligenceaims to form a modern and effective state, without exclusion.
Today, 27% of adult Europeans, ie 101 million people, have some form of disability, of which 11 million are children. 40.5 % of young people with severe disability live in conditions of poverty and social isolation.
The strategic objectives of the Ministry include the utilization of IT and Communication Technologies to form a digital state without exclusion, with particular emphasis on the service of people with disabilities (disabled) and their active participation in the process of digital transformation.
In this context, the Ministry is working with the academic and research community, utilizing the knowledge and technology produced in its bosom.
The Technology and Research Foundation It is one of Greece’s largest research agencies, with a widespread work in scientific research, technological development and innovation, and has proven experience and innovative know -how internationally, regarding digital accessibility and support of people with disabilities.
In the context of this collaboration, the ITTH Institute of Informatics has the role of technical advisor to form, evaluate and continually improve the accessibility of the National Digital Portal Gov.gr, setting the specifications to meet the internationally recognized accessibility standards. In addition, FORTH will contribute to the education and training of public sector executives to the principles of universal planning and the use of digital accessibility tools, with the aim of enhancing the ability of public bodies to design and provide digital services, friendly to all citizens.
Digital governance and artificial intelligence Minister Dimitris Papastergiou, shortly after the signing of the Memorandum, stated:
“The real responsibility of the state is to proceed with projects and reforms that upgrade the daily lives of all citizens. In this regard, the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Technology and Research Foundation is a strategic step. Together with one of the country’s leading research agencies, with a recognized know -how in digital accessibility, we join forces to ensure that Gov.gr and all our digital services will be truly friendly and accessible to all citizens. The utilization of technology acquires real value when it has a social sign, when it ensures equal access. With FORTH we set high accessibility standards and train the State to operate on the basis of the principles of universal planning so that every new service is from the first moment for everyone. This is our debt to society, to every citizen. Technology today enables us to overcome obstacles that in the past were considered insurmountable, to make the public more effective and more human, to build services that are truly aimed at everyone. This is our goal: to make a state that leaves no one behind, but we all move forward together. “
Vasilis Charmandaris, President of the Foundation for Technology and Research (FORTH), said in his speech:
“It is my pleasure and honor to be here today at this event, in which we sign the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Technology and Research Foundation (FORTH) and the Ministry of Digital Governance, so that it can continue the support of the Ministry’s work on the Ministry of Citizenship. our country.
I would like to say that FORTH is continuously supporting, through a corresponding memorandum of cooperation with the presidency of the Government, the operation of the National Accessibility Authority, since its establishment to date, and the Coordination Mechanism for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
FORTH, the largest and internationally competitive research center in the country, through its 10 Institutes, is researching a wide range of interdisciplinary issues, one of which is universal digital accessibility, an object that began to cure Greece – and in the field of pioneering.
The concepts of design for all and universal accessibility were born and technologically developed by the FORTH Institute of Informatics to be, decades later, the aim of the worldwide aim, in accordance with national and European law, as well as the UN Convention on Rights. In this context, FORTH completes the coming months, with its own funding, the development of an innovative methodology, accompanied by a new generation of technological tools, which is planned to be available, through the Greek state, to the United Nations to address the gap of its current law.
It is worth noting that, according to the results of a recent study conducted last year, 96% of websites and electronic services have significant digital accessibility problems, thus blocking the fundamental rights of people with disabilities in information, entertainment, health, education, education.
Finally, I must say that in FORTH, the internationally recognized activity in this area, began pioneering in the late 1980s by Kostas Stefanidis, today the president of the National Accessibility Authority, who has been continuing his work with uninterrupted energy and dedication since then. “