The 8th Annual Assistive Technology Conference, EMPOWER 2025, was held from 3–5 October 2025, hosted by IIT Delhi. This flagship event brought together researchers, startups, manufacturers, NGOs, and government organizations to showcase groundbreaking assistive technologies (AT), solutions, and initiatives aimed at empowering persons with disabilities and diverse needs.
The conference featured 10+ expert lectures, 10 half-day workshops, 8 panel discussions, 8 paper presentations, an extensive exhibition of over 40 assistive technology exhibitors, 10+ poster presentations, a Student Design Challenge, and a Startup Pitch Event. Cutting-edge research, innovations, and best practices from leading institutions—including Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, University of Birmingham, AIIMS, IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, and NISH—were showcased at the event.
The conference brought together influential changemakers driving inclusion and accessibility. The keynote speakers shared powerful insights on how technology, policy, and advocacy can advance inclusive development and purple economy aligned with SDGs 4 (Quality Education), 8 (Decent Work and Economic Development), and 10 (Reduced Inequalities). The speakers were:
Dr. Prema Nedungadi, UNESCO Chairholder in Assistive Technologies in Education; Associate Dean, Amrita School of Computing, Amritapuri; and Founding Director, Amrita CREATE, gave an invited talk on “AI-based Assistive Technology for the Deaf Community: Indian Sign Language Recognition and Generation” as part of the Thematic Session on “Assistive Technology for Verbal and Non-Verbal Communications” chaired by Dr. Akash Johry, Department of Design, IIT Delhi.
The talk highlighted AI-driven assistive technologies for the Deaf community, featuring a context-aware Indian Sign Language (ISL) chatbot designed for e-governance services. The system enables seamless recognition from isolated words to full sentences using a diverse dataset that captures varied signing styles. A complementary project showcased the conversion of speech and video content into an ISL signing avatar, further enhancing the accessibility of digital communication for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) community.
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham showcased its assistive technology (AT) projects at the exhibition, the team’s first major engagement since the official launch of the UNESCO Chair on Assistive Technologies in Education in September 2025. The innovations include AI-based solutions for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) community; a patent-granted Speech Enhancement Tool using ASR to support persons with speech disorders; interventions addressing reading and writing difficulties in Malayalam; and improved processes for the screening, diagnosis, and education of Autistic children.
The exhibit garnered an enthusiastic response from researchers and different stakeholders, fostering crucial exchanges that established new pathways for collaboration and advancing ongoing research efforts. Our team interacted with Prof. M. Balakrishnan, IIT Delhi, General Conference Chair; Shri K.V.S. Rao, Disability Policy Expert, Former Director of the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), MSJE; Prof. Bharati Kaushik, NCERT, and Prof. Roshan Paul, IIT Delhi. The Amrita team was represented by Dr. Rajlakshmi Kanjilal, Mr. Bhanu Sood, and Phd Scholar, Mr. Amal Krishnan UC.
