London’s Olympic Park has opened an innovation hub to develop technology that increases accessibility for disabled people.
The Global Disability Innovation Hub’s lab will research technology such as AI-powered navigation aids for visually impaired people and mobile communication to strengthen disabled communities.
The hub, which sits in Olympic Park along with tech campus Here East and tech co-working space Plexal, was formally opened by Tom Pursglove MP, minister for disabled people, health and work.
“Over one in five people in the UK are disabled,” said Pursglove. “It’s vital we continue to take concerted action across government to improve disabled people’s lives.”
The Global Disability Innovation Hub further bolsters East London as a tech innovation centre, with the UK’s tech industry evolving out of ‘Silicon Roundabout’ in Shoreditch more than a decade ago.
The opening of the Olympic Park technology lab coincides with the announcement of a new Disability Action Plan that is to be published next year.
“I’ll be bringing forward our Disability Action Plan in 2023 to build on government reform of the disability agenda, underlining our global leadership on disability rights and leading the way in areas such as assistive tech and accessibility,” added Pursglove.
Olympic Park was originally built for the London 2012 Olympic Games and has since been converted into a digital hub.
The post Innovation hub to research disability tech at Olympic Park appeared first on UKTN | UK Tech News.
