Juan Sebastián Ávila Pérez, a 14-year-old Colombian youth from Huila, Colombia, created in 2025 the Wings of Inclusion project, a technology and inclusion initiative that aims to bring the birdwatching experience closer to deaf people. The project uses a system capable of transforming sounds into vibrations, allowing people with hearing impairments to feel the songs of birds.
The story of Ávila with environmental conservation began five years before the project, in 2020, when he launched a community campaign focused on protecting Colombia's avian biodiversity. Since then, he has developed workshops, conferences, and educational activities, in addition to integrating tree planting and garbage collection days into his community meetings.
The inspiration for Wings of Inclusion came during a visit in which Ávila identified the difficulties faced by deaf children. For many people, recognizing a bird involves first hearing it, since a song among the trees can reveal the presence of a species that remains out of sight. The young man transformed this peculiarity into a technological solution that allows deaf people to also participate in birdwatching.
