Youth-led accessibility innovation takes the grand prize at Tech4City 2026

Most services are digital now, from online shopping to ride hailing, but many of these applications still lack accessibility features.

For visually and mobility impaired users, this gap is most obvious when applications have complicated interfaces and controls are unlabelled, making them incompatible with screen readers and voice assistants.

This was the pain point that a team of students tackled with their solution Sunday, a voice-first artificial intelligence (AI) accessibility platform, that enables people with visual and motor impairments to independently operate smartphones.

The solution, developed with the Singapore Association of the Visually Handicapped (SAVH), operates as a voice control with access to any app, where users can speak in natural language for Sunday to perform any task safely and seamlessly.

Sunday took the top prize of S$16,000 at the fifth edition of Huawei’s Tech4City Competition, which brought together young innovators aged 16 to 35 to apply AI and digital technologies in solutions that address real world challenges.

This year’s theme was “Fueled by AI, Powered for Public Good” and saw solutions across four pillars: AI for Transportation, AI for Education, AI for Community, and AI for Health.

The competition received 240 submissions of working prototypes from over 15 education institutions, making it the largest cohort thus far.

The six finalist teams showcased their solutions at the Finals ceremony held in Singapore on October 27.

AI to improve accessibility

Around 73 users have used the Sunday app, including people connected with SAVH and other services.

The team refined the solution and included features based on user feedback

These features included more descriptive narrations and periodic vibration cues during processing, and an additional guardrail that prevents the platform from executing payments, said Devadharshini Kumar from Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) representing her team.

The solution was powered by the Huawei AI layer, which enabled the action to be executed after going through the safety guardrails put in place.

The team received positive feedback from users on independent access to essential services, with 45 per cent more tasks done without any human help, and overall task completion reduced from 20 to five minutes.

The prize funding will help the Sunday team enhance the platform to reduce latency from roughly three to five seconds to a maximum of two, added Kumar.

The app is currently under review to be launched in the Google Play Store soon.

Hackathons for the greater good

Taking the second prize was EduNets, a study platform grounded in cognitive memory science, featuring concept webs, adaptive practice, and teacher dashboards.

The platform aimed to support students facing exam pressure and difficulty understanding materials, with a longer-term ambition to serve A-level and university learners in other Southeast Asian countries.

Other potential growth areas include pitching to tuition centres, providing tutors with insight into student marks, and eventually serving adult learners or other industries, noted EduNets team members.

They also highlighted the value of mentorship throughout Tech4City and encouraged students and young innovators to participate in future editions.

“Don't think about whether you'll win or whether you'll lose. As long as you believe that you can create a positive impact for the society, that's already a plus point and worth to try,” said Alexander Chua Min Kuan, student from Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) and EduNets team member.

The interest of youths to participate in Tech4City continues to grow as this edition received almost the double of submissions compared to last year.

“Looking ahead, we will continue nurturing talent with multilingual AI capabilities and cross-domain knowledge, and the ability to work seamlessly across different AI ecosystems, enabling interoperability and strengthening Singapore's technological resilience,” said Huawei International’s CEO, David Shi.

The finalists

The remaining finalists, Clubhouse, Route Guardians, Vastome, and Drill Mode, showcased applications of AI across areas affecting individuals, families and communities.

Clubhouse team’s solution was PillKaki, which uses AI to support medication adherence by parsing prescription labels into verified regimens paired with smart pillbox hardware. The solution addressed the AI for Health theme.

In the category of AI for transportation, Route Guardians team presented the TransitOps, an intelligent disruption management system connecting bus captains and command operations via multi-agent AI to route diversions safely.

This team received the “Best Innovation in Mobility Award” sponsored by SBS transit.

Vastome team also presented the Micro-Tactile Reader in the category of AI for education.

This solution is an AI-powered, fingertip-worn device that scans printed pages and renders them as live Braille, allowing visually impaired students to access personalised and self-paced access to course materials.

Drill Mode was the team and solution in the AI for Community category.

It is a gamified anti-scam training app using an AI virtual officer to simulate realistic scam calls, texts, and emails, to help users build instinctive responses to scams and encouraging family-wide scam awareness.

All of these projects aligned with the national Digital for Life movement by responding to key actions for practicing healthy digital habits that enable citizens to navigate online spaces safely and responsibly.