Access For All

The International Conference on Ambient Systems, Networks and Technologies (ANT-2010) is taking place on 26-28 July 2010 in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada. This is a leading international conference which provides an international forum for researchers, developers and practitioners from academia, industry, and government to address research challenges and to present and discuss research ideas, developments and experiences related to the ambient systems infrastructure, models, and technologies. The general aim of ambient systems is to provide an environment wherein computing devices exist anywhere and everywhere. In such systems mobile and embedded computing devices form ad hoc collaboration using different communication networks (e.g., wireless networks, RFID, etc) in order to share and exchange information and provide services. Ambient systems pose new research challenges due to the open and unreliable nature of the environment and the complexity and heterogeneity of the computing devices and the underlying communication networks. These characteristics challenge traditional techniques and demand new ways of approaching the problems related to the ambient systems.
More information on the Conference Website.

The eSeminar “Tech Talk: Making PDF files comply with Section 508″ will take place on 9 December 2009 at 10:00 am America/Los Angeles time and will take 75 min. The discussion will cover essential concepts in document accessibility, the role of Acrobat’s Accessibility Checker, and tips on how to recognize and correct accessibility problems in PDF files.
More information at the eSeminar website. Also check the relevant discussion at WebAIM.

Hungary does not pay enough attention to the possibilities offered by active ageing tools and by an inclusive Information Society for the elderly in relation to socio-economic competitiveness, employment, education and skills development. These indeed hold considerable potential in terms of market opportunities, productivity and growing domestic consumption.

Hungary has entered an era of accelerating loss of the demographic balance: while the Hungarian population will lessen by 10-20 percent in the next decades, society will age faster than the European average. It is foreseen, as a result, that in 2050, the legacy costs of one inactive old persons will be supported by only 2 active employees, instead of 5 today.

In a recent research, the Foundation for the Research on the Information Society has examined the process of ageing in terms of labour market activity, social contact networks, intellectual and physical activity as well as an independent and full life. It furthermore assessed the effects and drawbacks of the more or less open attitudes concerning technological innovations.

The research results have drawn a clear causal mechanism among the above aspects. Should state intervention intend to reach the strongest possible multiplier effect among the elderly, that is, in case its final objective is to increase employment and life quality, it must take account of the following lines:

1. Economic activity is most influenced by intellectual state;
2. Intellectual state is most influenced by the use of ICT tools.

Improving the accessibility and usage of ICT tools in the elderly group is therefore of substantial importance. The report calls on the government to pay special attention to this since digital tools play a provable influence on the improvement of the quality of life and intellectual activity of the aging and older people.

Unfortunately, some kind of a Matthew effect can also be demonstrated: the use of the ICT tools is basically influenced by intellectual activity, while it is one’s intellectual state and activity that can be most improved by the use of ICT tools, so those possessing a lot of cultural capital are able to accumulate even more by using these tools. This also means that those being in the highest need of the life quality improvement possibilities offered by the ICT tools show the most negative attitudes. The research thus concludes that the elderly in the Information Society represent a strongly segmented category.
Source: Official press release – Foundation for the Research on Information Society (in Hungarian)

In 2008 about 4000 hearing- impaired people lived in Belgrade, Serbia. Research showed that at least 70% of all disabled people were unemployed or had a very poor standard of living. In order to improve this situation, the International Aid Network (IAN) in partnership with the Serbian Association of Deaf and Hard of Hearing launched the project, “Professional Empowerment for Deaf and Hearing-Impaired People”, in June 2008. This project has given 24 hearing impaired people the opportunity to improve their chances at finding employment and also to enhance their current careers. An educational programme, financed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and Microsoft Serbia, was carried out in the IAN computer school in Belgrade, and consisted of 296 classes. Each class was conducted with the help of sign language interpreters and students were taught how to implement and successfully utilize many different skills to empower them in the workplace. Students obtained the internationally recognised ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) certificate as part of their intensive IT skills courses. Three top students have even become ECDL testers while participating in the project. In addition, students became further empowered in how to write better CVs, and acquired the necessary tools to find jobs via the Internet. By combining these two elements, IT and professional skills, the project has succeeded with this group of students and has set a precedent for more disabled groups to become actively involved in professional life.
Source: http://www.epractice.eu/en/cases/empoweringdeaf

Ambient Intelligence (AmI) is a recent paradigm emerging from Artificial Intelligence (AI), where computers are used as proactive tools assisting people in their day-to-day, making everyone’s life more comfortable.
The interaction with computers is changing quickly, as we no longer need to do it in ways not natural for us, since a main concern of AmI consists in to make possible the interaction with computational systems using friendly interfaces, allowing input through natural language or simple gestures.
This inclusion of technology in our day-to-day objects and environments should be as invisible as possible, because of the computational power and communication technologies embedding in most of the devices we use nowadays.
Human interaction with computing power embedded systems should happen without noticing it. The only awareness people should have arises from AmI: more safety, comfort and wellbeing, emerging in a natural and inherent way.
As defined by the IST Advisory Group (ISTAG), AmI has born thanks to three new key technologies: Ubiquitous Computing, Ubiquitous Communication and Intelligent User Interfaces, which are starting to change the way we see computers.
ISAmI is the International Symposium on Ambient Intelligence, aiming to bring together researchers from various disciplines that constitute the scientific field of Ambient Intelligence to present and discuss the latest results, new ideas, projects and lessons.
Brand new ideas will be greatly appreciated as long as relevant revisions and actualizations of previously presented work, project summaries and PhD thesis.
ISAmI 2010 will be held in the beautiful and historic city of Guimarães, Portugal, nominated by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage. With exceptional opportunities for sightseeing and gastronomy, Guimarães is a wonderful venue for a great symposium.
More information at http://isami2010.di.uminho.pt.