The 13th
Global IT Challenge for Youth with Disabilities (hereinafter referred to as the "Global IT Challenge"), hosted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (Minister Kyuhong Cho), LG Corporation (CEO Kwang-mo Koo), and the Philippine government, and organized by the Global IT Challenge Organizing Committee (Chairman In-kyu Kim), LG Electronics (CEO Joo-wan Cho), and NCDA (Secretary General Glenda Relova), will be held from Sunday, November 3rd to Saturday, November 8th, at "The Manila Hotel" in Manila, Philippines.
The Global IT Challenge was launched in 2011 with the aim of improving the information utilization skills of youth with disabilities worldwide and providing a foundation for their social advancement, including higher education and employment.
104 youths with disabilities from 16 countries will participate in the final round after having competed in the online preliminary rounds held in July
This year marks the 13th Global IT Challenge, which is being held in the Philippines, the fourth ASEAN member country to host the event, following Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia. The Global IT Challenge has primarily been held in countries in Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia, in alignment with the implementation of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Persons with Disabilities initiative.
Kenya and Egypt, which participated for the first time last year from the African region, are continuing their participation this year, further solidifying the Global IT Challenge as an international competition.
In the final round of this year's competition, held from November 3 to 8, a total of 104 youths with various disabilities, including visual, hearing, physical, and developmental disabilities, will participate.
The participating countries by region are as follows: 2 countries from Northeast Asia (Korea, Mongolia), 7 countries from Southeast Asia(Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines), 4 countries from South Asia (Nepal, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan), 3 countries from Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt). In total, 16 countries are participating in the competition.
To ensure the credibility of the competition, all participants will be required to attend the event in person
To ensure a fair environment where participants can demonstrate their true abilities, the competition will be held on-site.
In the endemic era, this on-site competition will provide an opportunity for all participating youth with disabilities to meet and interact in person. They will also have the chance to showcase their true skills under real-time supervision and evaluation during the competition.
Challenging Six Competitions, Providing Opportunities for Academic Application and Career Choices
Basic Competitions (3 Categories)
Participating youth with disabilities will compete in three main competitions ’eTool_Presentation’ which evaluates their ability to create slides using PowerPoint. ’eTool_Spreadsheet’ which assesses their ability to utilize Excel functions and extract data that meets specific conditions within a spreadsheet. ’eLifeMap’ which measures their ability to use various information-gathering skills through internet searches. Each competition will be allocated 50 minutes.
For visually impaired participants using screen readers, an additional 20 minutes will be provided.
Applied Competitions (3 Cateogories)
Additionally, participants will take part in ‘eContent’, and ‘eCreative_SmartCar’, which evaluates coding skills for autonomous vehicle races, and ‘eCreative_IoT’, which assesses appropriate technology ideas and IT skills aimed at improving the lives of people with disabilities.
‘eContent’ is a category that evaluates creativity and the ability to utilize various video production programs and technologies, with this year’s competition theme being ‘Dream as an IT leader’. In the ‘eCreative_IoT’ category, which involves developing products using appropriate technology, youth with disabilities will prepare development reports and demonstration videos as prior-tasks, to be submitted between September 16 and October 23. They will also present their ideas on stage at the Final Round.
The world's only IT festival that transcends disability, religion, culture, and borders
The Global IT Challenge has provided participating youth with a platform to communicate with the world and engage in society through IT, overcoming the barriers of disability, religion, culture, and nationality.
In addition to friendly competition, the competition allows youth from different backgrounds to share their cultures and build friendships through IT. This includes November 6th gala dinner where participants will wear traditional costumes from their respective countries. On Novemeber 7th, after the competition, participants will visit and tour the National Museum of Natural History and Manila Ocean Park.
The competition organizing committee prepares youth for the future by holding year-round e-learning sessions, preliminary rounds, and introducing new regulations, making it more than just a one-time event.
IT leaders who passed preliminary rounds and completed pre-competition IT education
Youth participating in the Global IT Challenge for Youth with Disabilities have strengthened their foundational skills by utilizing eLearning, available year-round on the ePlatform (
https://www.globalitchallenge.com), and by participating in the National Team Selection (April to June) and the Global IT Challenge International Online Preliminary Round (July 16-17).
The competition organizing committee has improved the system to help youth with disabilities prepare for the competition, taking into account the different IT education environments in each country. They provide an ePlatform and eLearning materials that anyone can access anytime, anywhere.
Providing new opportunities to strengthen the capabilities of becoming producers rather than just consumers, with competition modifications and mentoring aligned with current trends
The competition organizing committee has included generative AI-related challenges in the ‘eLifeMap’ category, which assesses information retrieval skills, reflecting the expansion of media markets due to the popularization of the internet and digital devices.
Additionally, through the ‘eContent’ category, the committee encourages youth with disabilities to acquire video shooting and editing skills. Special efforts have been made to develop media production guidelines, in collaboration with experts, to ensure that visually impaired youth can also smoothly participate as media producers.
Due to the difficulty of the ‘eCreative_IoT’ category, which challenges participants to develop appropriate technology ideas, this year, for the first time, the committee provided remote mentoring in collaboration with LG Electronics employees, the competition's sponsors, to assist struggling participants.
Through these initiatives, the plan is to emphasize the importance of creative IT skills and interest in AI, a symbol of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, to youth with disabilities from various countries. Furthermore, it aims to instill a sense of pride in them as IT producers rather than just consumers.
The IT challenge for youth with disabilities that started in Korea... Gaining the attention of the international community
The Global IT Challenge, which began in Korea in 1992, has seen growing national interest and participation.
The Korea Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities has been hosting domestic IT competitions since 1992 to bridge the digital divide for Korean youth with disabilities.
Since 2011, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Welfare and LG, the organization has been holding international competitions, traveling across countries to help bridge the digital divide for youth with disabilities in developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The goal is to support their employment, higher education, and social integration. Starting with the 2018 competition, countries from Europe (the UK) and the Middle East (the UAE) began participating, and since 2023, additional African countries such as Kenya and Egypt have joined, alongside Ethiopia.
Over the past 12 years, 5,000 youth with disabilities and government officials have participated in the Global IT Challenge, and currently, 16 countries are fiercely competing to participate in and host the competition.
Third from top left: CITEM Executive Director Leah Pulido-Ocampo standing beside First Lady Louise Araneta-Marcos, DTI Secretary Cristina Aldeguer-Roque, and DOT Secretary Christina Garcia Frasco with the KATHA Awards winners