Indra obtains the 2010 Corporate Citizen Of The Americas Award tor its Accessible Technologies

Indra, the premier IT company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe and Latin America, received the 2010 Corporate Citizen of the Americas Award within the category of vulnerable communities by The Trust for the Americas, affiliated with the Organization of American States (OAS).

The award acknowledges Indra’s contribution to sustainable development for the benefit of the communities where it operates by means of accessible technologies, specifically for its HeadMouse and VirtualKeyboard, free mouse and keyboard for people with motor disabilities. The initiative, chosen among other social projects carried out in the American continent, is within Indra’s Corporate Responsibility strategy and seeks to develop state-of-the-art solutions and services to facilitate access to technology for people with disabilities as well as their social and labour integration.

Hans Nieto, Indra’s Director in the area of Corporate Responsibility, received the award at the VIII Inter-American Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR Americas 2011. The event was organised by the Inter-American Development Bank (BID) and took place on 26 of May in Asuncion, Paraguay.

The HeadMouse and the VirtualKeyboard solutions can be downloaded for free from www.tecnologiasaccesibles.com. The solutions have been developed within the framework of the Indra-Adecco Foundation Chair of the University of Lleida dedicated to research on accessible technologies.

The HeadMouse is a free virtual mouse which enables people with disabilities to use the pointer by means of a webcam and the movements of the head and face. The VirtualKeyboard, as its name indicates, is a virtual tool free as well. It allows typing using any device which controls the pointer, for instance a mouse, joystick, touchpad or the HeadMouse itself. The VirtualKeyboard is the ideal complement of the HeadMouse as both enable people with motor disabilities to use a computer.

The Corporate Citizen award acknowledges those firms who have implemented state-of-the-art social programmes for the benefit of those communities where they operate and which can set the example for other firms in terms of social responsibility. The award has been conferred for eight years by the Organization of American States and this year it had the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (BID).

Over 300,000 downloads worldwide

The HeadMouse has been downloaded 300,000 times and the Virtual Keyboard 7,500 all over the world since they were launched. In order to promote the use of both solutions among people with disabilities and associations, after the presentation in Spain, Indra exhibited the solutions in events in the Latin American countries where the company is present.
The presentations, first in Mexico, then in Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina; and Peru were a success. Evidence of this is the amount of downloads following the events and the feedback provided by the new users.

Commitment to Accessible Technologies

Accessible technologies, created as part of Indra's Corporate Responsibility Strategy, aim to develop innovative solutions and services to facilitate access to technology and the social and labour integration of persons with disabilities.

Indra’s objective is to provide society with new solutions in the short-mid term and become an international benchmark in the search for excellence in the development of accessible technologies as in the model of collaboration and technology transfer between companies and universities.
The company seeks to develop IT solutions which can be applied to services offered to people with disabilities for them to gain more independency, access to education or employment, among others.

In its commitment to Accessible Technologies, Indra has developed more than R&D+i projects in this field. The company created five Accessible Technologies Chairs in cooperation with Adecco Foundation and the universities of Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Lleida, the Technical University of Madrid and the National University of Cordoba, Argentina. Besides this, the company cooperates with other institutions such as Rafael del Pino Foundation or the Foundation of the National Paraplegic Hospital of Toledo.

About The Trust for the Americas

The Trust for the Americas is a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Organization of American States (OAS). It was established in 1997 and its main goal is to promote cooperation and the development of communities through institutional growth. The Trust implements its programs through local partner organizations, with support from over 200 public and private sector partners in more than 20 countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

About Indra

Indra is the premier Information Technology company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe and Latin America. It is ranked as the second European company in its sector according to investment in R&D with nearly € 500 M during the last three years. In 2010 revenues reached € 2,557 M of which a 40% came from the international market. The company employs more than 31,000 professionals and has clients in more than 110 countries.