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Doha –

Two mobile applications from Qatar were amongst 40 Winners, selected from 451 nominations worldwide. WSA Mobile 2016 brought a diameter of innovation choosing the best of the best from Mexico to Bangladesh, from Qatar to Germany. The WSA Winners 2016 demonstrated the richness and diversity of mobile content globally and proved how mobile innovation can improve society.

The World Summit Award is a global initiative within the framework of the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). WSA is the only ICT event worldwide, that reaches the mobile community in over 178 countries. WSA highlights digital content improving society and focusses on local content with global relevance.

The 2 winners were Accessible Qatar by Sasol and The “Arabic Alphabet Wheel,” Madar Al-Huruf by Qatar Foundation International.

Accessible Qatar won in the Inclusion & Empowerment Category. This Mobile app , an initiative by Sasol, is a smart phone application where the disabled community is able to view the public and touristic locations and outlets in Qatar and see whether they are accessible and in what way. Having accessibility information publicly available on Accessible Qatar will encourage venues to make necessary modifications in support of accessibility for all patrons. Accessible Qatar will support promoting Qatar as an accessible destination.

The “Arabic Alphabet Wheel,” Madar Al-Huruf by QFI won in the Learning and education Category. It matches English letters and sounds to their Arabic counterparts. The wheel gives new learners their first taste of the Arabic alphabet through engaging hands-on activities, in which users can transliterate proper nouns and their names while learning how to connect Arabic letters from left to right. The app includes sound to hear the spoken letters, so beginners are able to hear and sound out the Arab. The app also allows the user to customize and share their name in Arabic as a digital sticker online through Social Media. 

The WSA winners were selected by a Jury of international ICT experts in two democratic rounds. Each UN Member State had nominated prior to that stage one product per category through a national pre-selection committee assigned by Ms. Reem Al Mansoori. Ms. Reem Al-Mansoori, is the Assistant Undersecretary for Digital Society Development Sector at the Ministry of Transport and Communications and the competition’s national expert.

 It is worth mentioning that the Ministry of Transport and Communications had opened registration for the competition in March 2016 and invited mobile app developers in Qatar to submit applications for the World Summit Award Mobile (WSA-mobile) 2016; in one of the 8 WSA categories.