Access For All

ÆGIS IP initiative (Open Accessibility Everywhere: Groundwork, Infrastructure, Standards) of the FP7 (Theme: ICT‐2007.7.1; ICT & Ageing; http://www.aegis‐project.eu) would like to kindly invite you to the forthcoming FOSS‐AMA (Free and Open Source Software ‐ for Accessible Mainstream Applications) event, at ETAPS 2010 (European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software) that takes place in Paphos, Cyprus on March 27‐28, 2010.

FOSS-AMA is organised by the ÆGIS IP initiative and will aim to bring together the most recent achievements and renowned experts in Open Source Community and Accessibility. 3rd generation access techniques and their potential for more accessible mainstream ICT for end‐users and relevant toolkits for developers will be explored. Interactive demos (including free assessment and simulation tools) will embellish the presentations sessions.

The event is spread over 2 days, will be chaired by Karel Van Isacker (Marie Curie Association) and will have the outline as presented in this pdf.
Registration details will be available from 25 January 2010 on via http://www.etaps10.cs.ucy.ac.cy/.

YouTube is introducing machine-generated automatic captioning to YouTube. The captions can also be translated. This potentially might have considerable implications for the hearing-impaired and language translation, albeit it will need further work in terms of reliability. Automatic captions will be generated using Google’s automated speech recognition (ASR) technology and the same voice recognition algorithms used in Google Voice. Additionally, auto-timing is being introduced. If you provide all the words in the video, Google will automatically time the captioning for you.
Google put together a video on how to access the automatic captioning and auto-timing features:

Source: Blog.searchenginewatch.com

AbleGamers offers game reviews that focus on accessibility. While games might have many qualities, some of them may be difficult to appreciate by disabled players. AbleGamers provides critique and advice on several aspects one may take for granted, including the presence of subtitles, colorblind options and adjustable controls. “There are countless sites out there that review games for their graphics and sound, but no one is looking at the game from the standpoint of accessibility,” explains Mark C. Barlet, President of the AbleGamers Foundation.

Kenny Cieplik, 34, also known as the “traveling wheelchair” is fighting to make buildings accessible to disabled people in Middleborough (Massachusetts, USA). With the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 approaching its 20-year anniversary, Kenny’s blog –thetravelingwheelchair.com– rates handicapped access at local businesses and brings attention to the challenges faced by disabled people. Cieplik started life with no disabilities, but suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage at age 11.
Source: Wicked Local Middleborough

EASPD is organising the “Towards Community living: current realities, future challenges” conference in Skopje on 7-9 October 2010.
The general goal of the conference will be to facilitate the full inclusion of persons with disabilities in society, in the light of the UN convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It also aims at promoting the broadest cooperation of stakeholders involved in the disability sector, across borders and cultural differences.
Conference venue: Skopje, Former Yugoslavian Republic Of Macedonia. More information to come at a later stage
Date event: 7-9.10.2010
Registration via the event website.

EASPD is organising the “What about me? – Including the most excluded – Improving the quality of life of people with profound disabilities” conference in Helsinki on 3-4 June 2010.
The UN Convention on the Rights of persons with Disabilities promotes, protects and ensures the full and equal enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by all persons with disabilities and promotes respect for their inherent dignity. People with disabilities are persons with rights, and they are entitled to claim these rights and make decisions for themselves. Full and effective participation and inclusion in society is recognized in the Convention.
The UN Convention and all these values should also be a reality for persons with high support needs and this creates challenges for people concerned, families, service providers and local communities.
The conference speakers from across Europe and beyond will explore ways of promoting these principle values and making the UN Convention a reality in the lives of persons with high support needs.
Conference venue: Scandic Continental, Helsinki, Finland
Date event: 3-4.6.2010
Registration via the event website.