Access For All

With inclusion in the information society growing in importance, the Commission has identified the urgent need to clarify ethical issues in order to respect the rights of users and enable thriving markets to develop (June 2007 Commission Communication on Ageing Well in the Information Society and the November 2007 Communication on e-Inclusion). Ethical issues related to inclusion in the information society concern amongst others ICT for healthy and independent living of elderly people, assistive technologies for persons with disabilities, ICT for integration of marginalised young people or migrants. All these themes were discussed in a workshop held in Brussels on 16 March 2009 – the first of a series of three – organised by the eInclusion Unit. Objective of these meetings is to set up criteria for selecting best ethical practices in the field of eInclusion as seen by all stakeholders: industry, research community, civil society, regional authorities, end users. Participation was restricted to speakers and a selected stakeholder and expert panel.

More information here.

29 September 2009 – 1 October 2009 Vienna, Austria
The AAL FORUM 09 is the kick-off event of the international conference series of the AAL Joint Programme and will serve as an information and discussion platform for stakeholders, scientists and users in Europe. It is intended to install the AAL FORUM as the central European AAL meeting place. The thematic priorities of the first AAL FORUM 09 will be national and European AAL activities, R&D projects and economic aspects of the joint programmes, the third AAL call for proposals as well as key questions of the further development of the AAL Joint programme. An exhibition will present institutions, companies, projects, activities and actors of AAL. Workshops for young researchers/PhD students and tutorials on industrial themes and best practice will give the state of the art in AAL. The Forum is organised by the European AAL Association in conjunction with the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Technology and Innovation.

More information at www.aal-europe.eu/.

The recent adoption of WCAG 2.0, the ongoing work with the standardization mandate 376 on incorporating accessibility in public ICT procurements provide a new momentum for web accessibility. Expert meetings like the one which took place on 23 March 2009, where representatives of users and industry presented their views of what is required to achieve progress, are intended to provide the European Commission with advice on how to boost web accessibility in the EU Member States.
All information can be found on http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/einclusion/events/workshop_web_access_09/index_en.htm.

The European Conference on Care and Protection of Senior Citizens takes place on 25-26.5.2009 in Prague, Czech Republic. The online broadcast of the conference will be operational from Monday 25th May (9.00-17.00) till Tuesday (9.00-16.00).

ÆGIS (Open Accessibility Everywhere: Groundwork, Infrastructure, Standards) first pan-European User Forum and Workshop ÆGIS is placing users and their needs at the centre of all its ICT developments. This is why we are inviting end-users of assistive technology (related to usage on PC, mobiles and the internet) to our first pan-European User Forum on Thursday 4th June 2009 at Research In Motion UK Ltd, Slough, Berkshire, United Kingdom. We aim at having fruitful discussions between both end-users and application developers, thus better understanding your needs when wanting to use accessible desktop, mobile and internet applications. It will ensure that future technologies and services will meet the needs of the end-users, and both mainstream and assistive technology developers. The next day, we organize our first Pan-European Workshop at the same premises. This workshop will present the preliminary findings of the project related to the Use Cases selection and preliminary user requirements, thus stimulating discussions on these issues between both end-users and application developers. Its outcome will be taken into account by the Consortium during the further course of the project. Key stakeholders from relevant areas are expected to participate (such as end users’ representatives and organisations, EC representatives, technologies developers, etc.). This workshop therefore is an excellent chance to meet experts from relevant fields.

Agenda User Forum – 4 June 2009
Time Topic Speaker
14.00 – 14.15 ÆGIS project at a glance Dr. Evangelos Bekiaris (CERTH-HIT)
14.15 – 14.30 ÆGIS technical presentation Mr. Peter Korn (Sun Microsystems)
14.30 – 15.30 Demos Mr. Peter Korn (Sun Microsystems)
15.30 – 18.00 Interactive (via discussion) generic use case user scenario presentation – with breaks Mr. Karel Van Isacker (EPR); Mr. Edward Chandler / Ms. Sally Cain (RNIB)
18.00 – 18.30 Discussion and conclusion Mr. Karel Van Isacker (EPR); Mr. Edward Chandler / Ms. Sally Cain (RNIB)

Agenda Workshop “Accessibility for All: Open Source-based Generalised Accessibility Support for Mainstream ICT Devices/Applications” – 5 June 2009
Time Topic Speaker
8.30 – 9.00 Registration
9.00 – 9.10 Welcome and Aim of the Day Mr. Karel Van Isacker (EPR)
9.10 – 9.35 EU Policies on eINCLUSION Mr. Miguel Gonzalez-Sancho (European Commission, ICT for Inclusion, Information Society & Media Directorate General)
9.35 – 9.50 ÆGIS at a Glance Dr. Evangelos Bekiaris (CERTH-HIT)
9.50 – 10.10 First feedback as collected during user forum Mr. Iván Carmona Rojo (FONCE)
10.10 – 10.40 Demos and Technical Overview Mr. Peter Korn (Sun Microsystems)
10.40 – 11.00 Coffee Break
11.00 – 12.30 ÆGIS Draft Use Cases and discussion Dr. Evangelos Bekiaris (CERTH-HIT)
12.30 – 14.00 Lunch
14.00 – 14.30 Standards for content (and content interoperability) in the field of eInclusion – and beyond Dr. Christian Galinski (Infoterm)
14.30 – 15.00 Accessibility overall Ph.D. Gregg C. Vanderheiden (Trace R&D Center University of Wisconsin – Madison)
15.00 – 15.30 Coffee break
15.30 – 15.45 Kick off of Open Accessibility Everywhere Group (OAEG) Dr. Evangelos Bekiaris (CERTH-HIT)
15.45 – 16.30 Round table Moderated by Dr. Evangelos Bekiaris (CERTH-HIT) and Mr. Peter Korn (Sun Microsystems)
16.30 – 17.00 Conclusions

You can register via http://www.aegis-project.eu/user_forum.html.

The conference “Bringing People to Work” will take place on 11–12 June 2009 in Thessaloniki (Greece). The starting point of the conference will be the Employment Directive, The State Aid Regulation, HLG paper on Supported Employment & Art. 27 of the UN convention on work and Employment of persons with disabilities.
The following topics will be covered:
- Mainstream employment and their barriers: how to help persons with disabilities to find and keep a job
- Vocational training to help meet the criteria
- Involvement of employers
- Role of the providers (how can service providers facilitate employers, including trade unions?)
- The view of trade unions, employers and authorities in employing persons with disability in all types of employment

There will be interpreters present for translations into English, French and Greek.

You can register through the website www.easpd.eu.