Access For All

The aim of the CARDIAC project is to create a platform that can bring together the various stakeholders in the area of accessible and assistive ICT with a view to identifying Research & Development gaps and emerging trends and generating a research agenda roadmap.
The basic concept behind the project is to create a platform that can bring together the various stakeholders in the area of accessible and assistive ICT with a view of identifying R&D gaps and emerging trends and generating a research agenda roadmap. It aims to identify examples of best practice and to disseminate the collective wisdom of all the relevant actors (both partners from within the project and stakeholders from outside the project) through, meetings, conferences and publications.
The major aim of the Coordination Action will be to improve the overall success of Challenge 7 ICT 2009 7.2 ‘Accessible and Assistive ICT’ by drafting a research agenda road-map highlighting research priorities that will favour eAccessibility.

Ofcom has commissioned a study to develop future scenarios based on the services required to promote social and economic inclusion of older and disabled people over the coming 20-year period. From these scenarios, the study identifies the key technological developments required, including a detailed discussion of drivers for or barriers to change, and a quantification of the technologies’ impact on wired and wireless networks.

• Assisted living technologies for older and disabled people in 2030 – Research report
• Assisted living technologies for older and disabled people in 2030 – Annexes

This report is inline with the urgent need that was expressed by speakers addressing some 80 delegates at a seminar held at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills , London, on June 15, and organised by the charity PhoneAbility in collaboration with BIS. Experts working across the field of disabled and older people have called for a national overall coherent plan to develop fully integrated systems and services which meet their needs.

Additionally, a consultation inviting citizens, businesses and researchers to share ideas on how best to use information and communications technologies (ICTs) to help older Europeans live more independently, and more generally to establish new ways to put ICTs at the service of the most vulnerable members of society, has been launched by a high-level panel established to advise the European Commission on the functioning of the Ambient Assisted Living joint programme (AAL JP). The panel is chaired by former European Commissioner Meglena Kuneva. The public consultation is the first step towards meeting the target of doubling the take-up of independent living arrangements for the elderly by 2015 set by the Digital Agenda (see IP/10/581). The consultation runs until 1 July 2010.

The International Conference on Translation and Accessibility in Video Games and Virtual Worlds will take place on 2-3rd December 2010 at the TransMedia Catalonia Research Group, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
The International Conference on Translation and Accessibility in Video Games and Virtual Worlds aims to be an interdisciplinary meeting point for all those interested in the fields of game localisation and accessibility, as well as accessibility and the role of translation in virtual worlds. This pioneering conference aims at laying the foundations for future studies in these areas, become a discussion forum where industry and academia meet and promote interdisciplinary research.
More information at the conference website.

ACCESSIBLE consortium is proud to announce the realisation of their first Project Workshop on 13 July 2010, in the context of the ICCHP conference in Vienna.
During the ACCESSIBLE workshop the innovative results of the project, related to the accessibility assessment and simulation technologies, will be presented accompanied with the developed tools, which will be interactively tested from the participants.
The participation is fully free of charge.