Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham has established a UNESCO Chair on Assistive Technologies in Education under the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme at its Amritapuri (Kollam, Kerala) campus. The Chair aims to advance inclusive innovation, research, and training to enhance accessibility and educational opportunities for persons with disabilities.
The agreement was signed by Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, and Dr. P. Venkat Rangan, Vice-Chancellor of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. The Chair will remain in effect until June 2029 and will be jointly chaired by Dr. Prema Nedungadi and Dr. Raghu Raman.
Speaking about the initiative, Dr. Prema Nedungadi said, “Guided by Amma’s vision, Amrita has developed inclusive educational initiatives and technologies that give voice to the voiceless, sight to the blind through audio description, and communication to the deaf through sign language innovation. The establishment of this UNESCO Chair reflects that continuing commitment to integrating education, research, and service for persons with disabilities.”
The Chair will focus on developing AI-enabled chatbots, Indian Sign Language (ISL) video recognition, and audio description tools, in addition to capacity-building through academic training and international collaboration. It is also developing an ISL-integrated accessibility interface for e-Governance services, with an initial version already implemented on the UMANG platform, developed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the National e-Governance Division (NeGD).
With this establishment, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham becomes the only university in India to host three active UNESCO Chairs, joining a global network of more than 10,000 academics and researchers focused on inclusive and sustainable development.
Other UNESCO Chairs at Amrita
- UNESCO Chair on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (2016, renewed through 2028) – led by Dr. Bhavani Rao R., focusing on gender equality, education, and community development.
- UNESCO Chair on Experiential Learning for Sustainable Innovation and Development (2020) – led by Dr. Maneesha V. Ramesh, promoting experiential sustainability education through Amrita’s Live-in-Labs®
