VietNamNet Bridge – An information technology competition for disabled students, a first of its kind in Viet Nam, drew about 140 Vietnamese and South Korean students on Saturday.

Entitled Global IT Challenge for Vietnamese and Korean Youth, the competition aimed to create more opportunities for the students to improve their skills, as well as share the culture and lives of people with disabilities in the two countries, said Duong Thi Van, vice chairwoman of the Ha Noi Disabled Persons Association and a member of the organising committee.

The event was organised by the association along with the Korean Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities, Ha Noi National Pedagogical University and the LG Group.

Forty-two Korean competitors, with a variety of vision, hearing, mobility or learning disabilities, took two-hour practical exams that focused on finding information via the internet and basic skills using software such as Microsoft Word, Excel and Power Point.

Prof Min Hong Gi from Incheon University said that such competitions for youth with disabilities had been held in South Korea for the past decade, aiming to improve skills while lifting barriers for the disabled to information technology careers and integration into the community.

He said that similar competitions could take place in Viet Nam regularly at a larger scale and improved quality.

Nguyen Thi Huyen, 15, a student at the from Viet Nam-Korea Rehabilitation Centre for the Disabled in Ha Noi's Quoc Oai District, said that she had studied Microsoft Word and Exel for a year and found it challenging but interesting.

She said she was afraid since this was the first time she had joined in a competitions, but she had met lots of friends with disabilities like her own, including Korean students.

The competitors also joined in a cultural exchange at the Viet Nam Ethnology Museum yesterday.

The activities are part of a series of events to mark the upcoming International Disability Day on December 3, with a theme this year of Building a Better World for All Together: Integration of People with Disabilities in Development.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News