ATLAS E.P. Awarded for Our Innovations in Universal Accessibility!

We are delighted to announce that ATLAS E.P. has been recognised for its innovations in Universal Accessibility! As part of the Hellenic Business Awards 2026, organised by EU Business News, we were informed in June that ATLAS E.P. had been nominated in recognition of the innovations it has introduced in the field of accessibility. Following an evaluation by the organisation’s judging panels, the quality of our services and their positive reception among audiences were recognised, leading to the ATLAS E.P. team being named Leading Innovators in Universal Accessibility 2026.

Official Award Badge

As part of the award process, the organisation published an article about our company on page 14 of the magazine, which is available at the following link: https://www.eubusinessnews.com/issues/hellenic-business-awards-2026/

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For accessibility purposes, we have extracted the text of the article and made it available below in an accessible format in English:

Leading Innovators in Universal Accessibility 2026

An innovator in developing accessibility services, ATLAS E.P. champions universal accessibility, a practice that remains incredibly rare around the world. Essentially, this means ensuring that live music, dance, theatre, cinema, TV productions and so on are available to everyone by transforming sound into image and image into sound, amongst other things. As the team has been named a Leading Innovator in Universal Accessibility for 2026, we caught up with the woman at the helm, Emmanouela Patiniotaki, to find out more about the work the team is doing in venues and across entertainment platforms in Greece and abroad.

Established in Greece in 2009 and in London in 2017, ATLAS E.P. moved back to Greece in 2021 and today operates in various sectors of the Greek market. It was founded by CEO Emmanouela Patiniotaki, a researcher and academic in the field of audiovisual translation and accessibility. She holds a PhD in the design of holistically accessible environments and developed the INCLUDE Framework for Universal Accessibility, which is applied in art, education and culture. While currently carrying out postdoctoral research in Reverse Accessibility, Emmanouela also works at ATLAS E.P. to provide services that offer equal linguistic and sensory access ethically, while respecting audiences and creators.

At its core, ATLAS E.P. innovates in the realm of live performance and recorded content (TV, cinema, etc.), using state-of-the-art technology to depict audio channels for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. This work draws on principles taught across musicology and deaf studies, fields in which Emmanouela and the other specialist professionals on the team are experts. This expertise allows them to improve ATLAS E.P.’s services based on real audience needs.

ATLAS E.P. is also one of the few active companies working in the fields of audio description and audio subtitling to serve blind and visually impaired audiences. This work is carried out in a fully equipped studio that follows EBU standards.

But this is just the beginning, as the team also provides a host of accessibility services, from audio description and audio subtitling to tactile tours, speech-to-text interpreting and multilingual localisation of the arts. These services provide equal access for audiences who do not speak the local language. They are complemented by general localisation services, such as interpreting and translation between languages, as well as research on accessibility and universal design.

Combined, these services have resulted in more than 110,000 production minutes of TV subtitling, over 7,000 production minutes of audio-described TV, more than 350 theatre performances, and over 280 concerts, operas and other performances. ATLAS E.P. is a member of professional national and international organisations and fosters exclusive collaborations in accordance with their respective codes of conduct. Its work is both accredited and pioneering.

“ATLAS E.P. is the first company offering live subtitling in Greece. After providing the service for many years at live events, it is now available for adaptation by television and cinema, as well as education.”

One example of the innovations ATLAS E.P. delivers is Reverse Accessibility. This allows audience members to take part in forms of art that were traditionally inaccessible to them. It was first deployed at the Greek Opera House in a production of Konstantinos Rigos’ The Swan Lake.

The idea is simple, but the results are extraordinary. The team is researching how Reverse Accessibility can be applied in a wide range of scenarios, making ballet and theatre accessible in many different ways. Emmanouela explained: “For example, blind people could understand what deaf actors who communicated only through sign language were saying and doing on stage.”

This innovation is complemented by the ATLAS E.P. Accessibility Suite, a collection of tools for preparing accessibility services. A truly one-of-a-kind creation, the suite will be launched and presented at scientific conferences by the end of October 2026.

Alongside developing and releasing these tools, ATLAS E.P. has also completed a range of stellar projects that demonstrate its standing in this space. These include making the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 an accessible TV concert for Greek public television. The team presented Greece’s entry, ‘Ferto’ by Akylas, in international signs and with English subtitles to make sure it could be accessed by everybody.

With dozens of diverse and exciting projects under its belt already, ATLAS E.P. is looking ahead to a future with even more variety in its work, helping it reach more people through services that are transforming the way people consume media, art and performance. More information about the services delivered by ATLAS E.P.’s award-winning team can be found at the web address below.

Contact: Emmanouela Patiniotaki

Company: ATLAS E.P.

Web Address: https://www.atlas-ep.com/

Having now received the physical award and certificate, and as we prepare to celebrate, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who has supported us and shown their appreciation for our efforts over the years in such a meaningful way, as well as to our partners who place their trust in us from the very first stages of planning and design.

Universal Accessibility is not the end result.

It is not just about the final image. It is not even about the image at all.

Universal Accessibility begins with design. It is grounded in research, education, implementation, improvements, innovations, further implementation, testing, changes, critical feedback... And we are there at every stage.

This is precisely why we have received this award, and we are delighted to see the growing acceptance of the change we have brought to the field of accessibility. It takes time. It takes trust. But this is what brings about meaningful change.

Thank you for giving us that time. We remain committed, as we always have been, to working for the benefit of the communities we serve.