Access For All

The triggering idea behind ACCESSIBLE is to contribute for better accessibility for all citizens, to increase the use of standards, and to develop an assessment simulation environment (including a suite of accessibility analysing tools as well as developer-aid tools) to assess efficiently, easily and rapidly the accessibility and viability of software applications for all user groups.

ACCESSIBLE will exploit the technologies behind the recent expansion of accessibility tools and standardisation methodologies, in order to provide an integrated simulation assessment environment for supporting the production of accessible software applications mobile or not.

This will enable large organisations, SMEs or individuals (developers, designers, etc.) to produce software products of superior accessibility and quality, accompanied with appropriate measures and proposals for best practice. The proposed system will be demonstrated in the four pilots of ACCESSIBLE for the assessment of: a) Mobile applications (including JavaFX Scripts), b) Web applications, c) Web services (mainly focusing on infomobility services), and d) description languages (e.g. UML, SDL, etc.).

The first newsletter is now available.

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.

The European (Valorisation) Conference entitled “Creativity and Innovation in Education, Training, and Employment” will take place on 25 September, 2009 at POLIS, Rue du Trône 98, in Brussels (easily reachable via the metro – station “Troon / Trône”). It is organised with the financial support of the Leonardo da Vinci programme of the EC.

The (provisional) agenda is as following:
8.00-9.00 Registration/welcome coffee and project products exhibition
9.00-9.10 Opening – Maria Goranova-Valkova, MCA, Bulgaria
9.10-10.30 Workshop session 1
“Accessible e-Learning for People with Disabilities”:
• Quality and Accessible Training II Project (9:10am – 9:30am) – Dr. Val Chapman, UW, UK
• E-Access II Project (9:30am – 9:50am) – Andrean Lazarov, MCA, Bulgaria
• ETTAD Project (9:50am – 10:10am) – To be confirmed
• Educational Platform for Physically Disabled People Project (10:10am – 10:30am) – To be confirmed
• Discussion / Questions – Moderator: Maria Goranova-Valkova, MCA, Bulgaria
10.30-11.00 Coffee break
11.00-13.00 Workshop session 2
“New Opportunities for Rising of Job Readiness for People with Disabilities”
• GOAL.NET Project (11:00am – 11:20am) – Prof. David Brown, NTU, UK
• Validating Mentoring 2 Project (11:20am – 11:40am) – Maria Goranova-Valkova, MCA, Bulgaria
• Social Employers Network: Common European Portal (11:40am – 12:00am) – Petya Grudeva, MCA, Bulgaria
• ESTEEM Project (12:00pm – 12:20pm) – Dr. George Taylor, UW, UK
• KeyComKit Project (12:20pm – 12:40pm) – To be confirmed
• ENEVA Project European Portal Linking Projects in the Field of Disabilities (12:40pm – 13:00pm) – Andrean Lazarov, MCA, Bulgaria
• Discussion / Questions – Moderator: Maria Goranova-Valkova, MCA, Bulgaria
13.00-13.10 Closing of the event – Maria Goranova-Valkova, MCA, Bulgaria
13.10-14.30 Lunch. Continuation of the networking.

For registration, click on this registration link. As places are limited, please register before 4 September 2009.

The European Disability Forum is planning to organise a seminar on the main results of the European Research Agendas for Disability Equality project to be held on 16th June 2009 in Brussels, Belgium. The main objective of the project is to increase and enhance the active and equal participation of disabled people’s organisations in future research initiatives that will promotedisability equality and non-discrimination in Europe.
The seminar will bring together organisations currently involved with developing research project outlines, with academics and researchers who are interested in research collaboration. Participants will also include representatives of the European Commission as well as research policy-makers, funders and promoters interested in disability equality research.
Further details about the seminar will be available shortly on the website. In the meantime, should you require further information, please contact Sandra Tavares Moreira, Project Coordinator, European Disability Forum: sandra.tavares-moreira@edf-feph.org.

The ÆGIS project just released its first newsletter.