Access For All

On Tuesday 16th of March 2010, the Japan 2010 Accessibility Forum will be organised at Kobe University, Japan.
The goal of the symposium is to explore what Japan is doing with accessibility, and to discuss the relationship between sustainability and accessibility/universal design/inclusive design. The symposium will start at 09:00 and continue until 17:00.
The symposium will be held in Japanese.
Papers on presentations will be in English after the symposium. Short papers (max 1-page) will be provided in Japanese/English before the symposium.
If you would like to contribute or give a presentation, please contact one of the organisers of the symposium and send a 1-page short abstract on the topic you would like to present.
The topics are:
- Collaborative technologies and accessibility
* How to accommodate a variety of users
- Mobile devices
* Awareness
* Location based services
- Sustainable technologies and accessibility
- Aging population and technology
* Need for a human centric approach to AT
* Holistic approach to accessibility
- Individual adaptability
* Alternative resources (DAISY, Sign Language and others)
- Findings from Toronto Conference on OpenSource and Accessibility
- Standards in Japan
* Japanese legislation
- Cognitive/Psychiatric challenges

For more information about the symposium please contact one of the following organisers:
* Erlend Øverby, Hypatia AS – Convenor ISO/IEC JTC1/SC36/WG7 (erlend.overby@hypatia.no) Information Technology for Learning, Education and Training – Culture, Language and Individual Needs
* Jutta Treviranus, ATRC University of Toronto (jutta.treviranus@utoronto.edu) Assistive Technology Research Centre
* Liddy Nevile – La Trobe University, Australia – DC Accessibility Convenor (liddy.nevile@gmail.com)
* Min Kang, Kobe University (kang@kobe-u.ac.jp)

More information at the event website.

The VAALID EU project would like to invite you to the workshop “VAALIDate your AAL experience!” in Florence, Italy, on the 3rd of November 2009, from 15h to 17h. The Workshop aims at presenting and discussing the work carried out in the framework of VAALID project to develop method and tools to help designers to create and evaluate Ambient Assisted Living solutions. The workshop will take place at the Palazzo degli Affari in Florence, as a side-event of the OASIS 1st International Conference held in Florence 4th and 5th of November.

Key Dates
Registration free, until 30th of October 2009

For more details and registration please email us at msalaso@itaca.upv.es.

VAALID project aims at creating new tools and methods that facilitate and streamline the process of creation, design, construction and deployment of technological solutions in the context of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) assuring that they are accessible and usable for senior citizens.

ÆGIS is organising a satellite event at ETAPS 2010 (European Joint Conferences on Theory and Practice of Software). The satellite event FOSS‐AMA is a newly introduced event, inspired by the ÆGIS IP initiative (Open Accessibility Everywhere: Groundwork, Infrastructure, Standards) of the FP7 (Theme: ICT‐2007.7.1; ICT & Ageing; http://www.aegis‐project.eu/).

FOSS‐AMA 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 will embellish the presentations sessions.

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This is a reminder for 1st International OASIS (www.oasis-project.eu) Conference that will take place on November 4-5, 2009 in Florence, Italy. It will provide a forum to present current and future work as well as to exchange ideas in the field of Independent Living and Autonomous Mobility for elderly.

OASIS is a Large Scale Integrating Project – partially funded by the European Commission (FP7-ICT 215754) – with the aim to develop an open and innovative reference architecture, based upon ontologies and semantic services, that will allow plug and play and cost-effective interconnection of existing and newly developed services in all domains required for the independent and autonomous living of older people and their enhanced Quality of Life.

Topics that will be addressed:
- How to support holistically the independent living and mobility of the elderly across Europe?
- How to connect services for the elderly in an one-stop-shop fashion and interrelate/ integrate them?
- What are the elderly and their families/carers primary needs, concerns and expectations from the technologies and services arising?

These, and much more, are to be presented in Florence, in the 1st International OASIS Conference.

Registration and full details are available at the OASIS website.

Our representatives joined the MCA team (one of the exhibitioners at stand 37) at Research Connection 2009 conference and exhibition which will take place in Prague from 7 to 8 May 2009 under the Czech Presidency of the European Union. More information can be found at the event website.
“Inclusion without borders” presented the Integrated Projects ASK-IT and OASIS, funded respectively under FP6 and FP7, and that address mobility and accessibility, and an enhanced quality of life for older people through ambient assisted living technology. In addition, several other projects that support the inclusion of people with disabilities and older people were equally presented in introduced to stand visiotors.
The working ASK-IT services (mobility impaired users can organise their trip according to their accessibility needs and the accessibility characteristics of the places they intend to visit and of the different possible transportation means or paths) were presented, while also the ASK-IT domotic application was demonstrated. Additionally, an OASIS mock-up, showing how older people will be guided in their daily life with regards to their dietary life, as well as healthy lifestyle was presented as well.
Interested visitors were also able to subscribe to the respective project/end-user/developer communities. Leaflets off all projects were made available, as well as an instructive ASK-IT 3D video was displayed continuously.

A European (Valorisation) Conference entitled “A Job Environment for All” will take place on 25 September, 2009 in Brussels, Belgium. A whole range of projects will present its outcomes, most in direct relationship to the increased employability of people with disabilities. The conference will take place at POLIS, Rue du Trône 98, in Brussels (easily reachable via the metro – station “Troon / Trône”) from 9.30 till 14.30. It is organised with the financial support of the Leonardo da Vinci programme of the EC.

Registration is now open via http://www.phoenixkm.eu/registration.php.