{"id":437,"date":"2025-10-08T06:04:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T06:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amritavarsham.org\/news\/?p=437"},"modified":"2025-10-08T06:04:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T06:04:23","slug":"amrita-vishwa-vidyapeetham-and-unesco-launch-new-chair-on-assistive-technologies-in-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amritavarsham.org\/news\/2025\/10\/08\/amrita-vishwa-vidyapeetham-and-unesco-launch-new-chair-on-assistive-technologies-in-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and UNESCO Launch New Chair on Assistive Technologies in Education"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a major step toward advancing inclusive education worldwide, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham\u00a0has partnered with UNESCO\u00a0to establish a new UNESCO Chair on Assistive Technologies in Education. The Chair aims to promote innovation and accessibility in education for persons with disabilities, bridging global research and practical solutions.<\/p>\n<p>The agreement was formally signed by Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, and Dr. P. Venkat Rangan, Vice Chancellor of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. The Chair will remain active through June 2029, with Dr. Prema Nedungadi, Associate Dean of the School of Computing, serving as Chair, and Dr. Raghu Raman\u00a0as Co-Chair.<\/p>\n<p>The launch ceremony took place on September 27, 2025, at Amritapuri, during Amritavarsham 72, in the presence of Chancellor Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (Amma). The Chair was formally inaugurated by Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>The new Chair focuses on key objectives, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Advancing research in accessible technologies\u00a0such as AI chatbots, Indian Sign Language video recognition, and audio description tools.<\/li>\n<li>Building capacity through training workshops, courses, and industry partnerships.<\/li>\n<li>Mapping and expanding India\u2019s assistive technology ecosystem.<\/li>\n<li>Fostering international collaboration\u00a0through global partnerships, research exchanges, and joint programs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This Chair joins two existing UNESCO Chairs at Amrita:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>UNESCO Chair on Gender Equality and Women\u2019s Empowerment\u00a0(established in 2016, renewed through 2028), led by Dr. Bhavani Rao R., focusing on research and community initiatives that promote women\u2019s empowerment across multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).<\/li>\n<li>UNESCO Chair on Experiential Learning for Sustainable Innovation and Development\u00a0(inaugurated in 2020), led by Dr. Maneesha V. Ramesh, based on Amrita\u2019s\u00a0<em>Live-in-Labs<\/em>\u00a0model to strengthen sustainability education aligned with SDG 4.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>With three UNESCO Chairs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham\u00a0now stands as a leading member of UNESCO\u2019s global UNITWIN network, working at the intersection of gender equality, sustainability, and inclusive education. These Chairs embody Amrita\u2019s holistic vision \u2014 uniting research, community engagement, and global collaboration to address humanity\u2019s most pressing challenges.<\/p>\n<p>Stefania Giannini, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, welcomed the new initiative, stating that the Chair joins \u201cover 10,000 academics worldwide dedicated to open collaboration, social impact, and knowledge sharing for inclusive global progress.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The establishment of this Chair reflects Amrita\u2019s continued leadership in aligning academic excellence with compassion-driven research and innovation \u2014 a hallmark of Amma\u2019s vision for education that serves humanity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a major step toward advancing inclusive education worldwide, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham\u00a0has partnered with UNESCO\u00a0to establish a new UNESCO Chair on Assistive Technologies in Education. The Chair aims to promote innovation and accessibility in education for persons with disabilities, bridging global research and practical solutions. The agreement was formally signed by Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/amritavarsham.org\/news\/2025\/10\/08\/amrita-vishwa-vidyapeetham-and-unesco-launch-new-chair-on-assistive-technologies-in-education\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and UNESCO Launch New Chair on Assistive Technologies in Education<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amritavarsham-72","entry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/amritavarsham.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/10\/unesco-chair-assistive-technology-amritavarsham.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amritavarsham.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amritavarsham.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amritavarsham.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amritavarsham.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amritavarsham.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amritavarsham.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":439,"href":"https:\/\/amritavarsham.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions\/439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amritavarsham.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amritavarsham.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amritavarsham.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amritavarsham.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}