Our colleague Julio Abascal, professor of Computer Architecture and Technology at the University of the Basque Country, has obtained the 2023 National Computing Award in the “José García Santesmases” category, awarded by the Spanish Computer Science Society (SCIE) and the Fundación BBVA 2023. Its pioneering work in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (IPO) has been valued, especially in the field of accessibility, seeking that information technology guarantees the integration in the digital field of all people, including those with disabilities physical, sensory and cognitive. Also due to his active participation in international forums that he has contributed to highlighting the essential contribution of the IPO discipline to computing.
This recognition responds to his extensive career of almost 40 years in research, teaching and management tasks in Computer Science and especially his work promoting and disseminating the IPO, and its application to the needs of people with disabilities, both at national as international.
During his professional career, Julio Abascal has focused his research mainly in the fields of IPO and Digital Accessibility, in which his contributions to User Modeling and Automatic Generation of Accessible Interfaces based on Models, Accessible and Adaptive Ubiquitous Computing have stood out. , Alternative and Augmentative Communication, as well as Assistance Robotics. His works have been recognized and cited internationally, establishing himself as a renowned expert in these disciplines.
Julio Abascal is internationally recognized as a pioneer of digital accessibility. His work on methodologies and tools for the design of human-computer interaction systems accessible to all people, including web accessibility, stands out.

Since 1992 he was the Spanish representative in the WG13 working group on Human-Computer Interaction, created in 1990 by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). As founder (in 1993) and first chair (1993-1998) of the IFIP Working Group 13.3 on HCI and Disability, he promoted work on accessibility guidelines for accessible interface design through various publications. In addition to promoting Accessibility, the objective of his international activity has been to promote abroad the advances in COI that are being carried out in Spain and to publicize in Spain the research in COI developed by the international community. With this goal in mind, in 1998 he was contacted by Professor Jesús Lores of the University of Lleida, another of the pioneers of Human-Computer Interaction in Spain, to found our Human-Computer Interaction Association (AIPO) together with other researchers.

An important aspect of his research is the wide spectrum of international collaborations, coordination of research projects and his effort to create school through the creation of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory for Special Needs.

He has received prestigious international awards and recognitions:

• IFIP Fellow, awarded by the General Assembly of the International Federation for
  Information Processing (IFIP) (Kyiv, October 12-13 2019)
• IFIP TC 13 Pioneer awarded by the General Assembly of the IFIP 2015
• ACM Senior Member – 2013
• IFIP Silver Core, awarded by the General Assembly of IFIP

At AIPO we are very satisfied with this recognition given to Julio Abascal, and we offer him our warmest congratulations on this well-deserved award.

The awards ceremony, to which AIPO members are invited, will be held in Madrid in October. Closer to the date, AIPO will inform the members of the details of said ceremony.