Access For All » Policy actions

First Stakeholder Workshop of the AALIANCE2 Roadmap

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:58:29 +0000

The AALIANCE2 Project is pleased to announce the first Stakeholder Workshop of the AALIANCE2 Roadmap “Technologies for AAL solutions: AAL application domains” on February 14, 2012, 9.00–16.30, at The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio, 34 in 56025 Pontedera (Pisa), Italy. Contact persons are f.cavallo@sssup.it, m.aquilano@sssup.it, christian.wehrmann@vdivde-it.de.

AALIANCE2 Project is a Coordination Action funded in the FP7-ICT-2011.7, which focuses on the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) solutions based on advanced ICT technologies for ageing and wellbeing of elderly people in Europe. One of its main objectives is to build consensus upon research priorities in the AAL roadmap and Strategic Research Agenda for the upcoming decades.

This first workshop will focus on the functional areas associable to the AAL application domains (AAL4Person, AAL in the Community) and the relative activities/application scenarios. The objectives are to refine, classify, organize and improve the contents of the first AALIANCE Roadmap, published in March 2010.

Suitable persons for the AALIANCE2 Workshop are experts in the AAL domain, which have experience in some of the following tasks: designing, developing, producing, experimenting, and assessing AAL technologies or studying and defining the main aspects of AAL field. Experts should be AAL technology developers and researchers, ICT service providers and technology suppliers, policy‐makers, standardization organizations, health and care service organizations, caregivers, etc.

We would like to invite you (or some of your staff) to participate in this Workshop as Experts in the field of the AAL or responsible in Projects related to AAL and Ageing Well. The participation in the Workshop is limited to a small number of experts, therefore we ask you to confirm your participation as soon as possible, since the experts will be accepted based on the “who first confirms, first participates in”.
We gently ask you to extend this invitation also to all partners of the AAL project in which you are involved in.

If you accept to participate in the Workshop, you will receive guidelines to participate in the event and contents of the previous AALIANCE Roadmap.

Inclusion of disabled persons key to 2020 strategy, says EP

admin — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 13:35:43 +0000

The objectives of the ‘Europe 2020’ strategy cannot be attained without the active involvement of disabled people, ie some 80 million individuals (16% of the population). Such is the European Parliament’s message in a non-legislative resolution on the mobility and inclusion of disabled persons and the 2010-2020 strategy in favour of disabled persons, adopted on 25 October.

According to the latest statistics, the drop-out rate in education and the unemployment rate of disabled persons is at least twice as high as the rate of able persons and the poverty rate among disabled persons is 70% higher than the average rate. To address this situation, MEPs call on member states and the European Commission to take concrete measures in terms of mobility and social inclusion. They state that a “welcome development” in terms of free movement of persons and barrier-free services would be the introduction of a unified European mobility card for reciprocal recognition of care for people with disabilities. This would allow disabled persons to study, work and travel more freely.

MEPs stress the enormous importance of employment on the ordinary labour market for disabled persons and call on the Commission and the governments of member states to adopt legal and financial measures which truly encourage the employment of disabled persons. Lastly, MEPs encourage the creation of special forms of leave so that parents can take care of their children with disabilities and urge that the commitment shown and the work performed by parents of children with disabilities should be recognised by being counted as professional experience and by being specifically taken into account when old-age pension entitlements are calculated.

This non-legislative resolution, drafted by the chamber’s only deaf MEP, Ádám Kósa (EPP, Hungary), follows from the EU’s 2010-2020 strategy on disability. Adopted in late 2010, this Commission communication provides a framework for European action and includes measures that can be taken at a national level in order to implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. While MEPs welcome this initiative, they regret that the Commission’s communication does not include an integrated gender perspective or a separate chapter on gender-specific disability policies. MEPs recall that the Commission pledged to present a legislative proposal for a European Accessibility Act, and stress the need for strong, binding measures at EU level, with a clear road map. MEPs also call for the adoption of the necessary measures to help the visually impaired to carry out business transactions.
Source: Europolitics

EU Conference on Innovation for Digital Inclusion

admin — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 05:25:26 +0000

During the EU Conference on “Innovation for Digital Inclusion”, in Gdańsk, Poland on 5-7 October 2011, which was devoted to the innovative usage of solutions based on information and communication technologies (ICT) and its importance in the process of e-Inclusion in Europe, following themes were addressed:

new developments of ICT in public inclusive services
models of e-inclusion of digitally excluded Europeans, introducing them to wider social and cultural life, and increasing career opportunities on today’s digitally driven market
effective models of independent living and security of the elderly, based on innovative and economically feasible e-care and e-health solutions
overview of the most innovative national and regional e-inclusion programmes, and initiatives, as tools for the implementation of the Digital Agenda for Europe
importance of the e-Inclusion policy to the delivery of the Digital Agenda for Europe.

The conference ended up with the adoption of a document stressing the priority actions that should be taken by the EU in the immediate future to improve digital literacy and inclusion of all EU citizens – “Gdansk Roadmap for Digital Inclusion”.
To read more and view the presentations, visit the conference website.

The EU needs to do more to include people with disabilities

admin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:27:34 +0000

“The EU needs to get more people with disabilities into jobs and include provisions on disability in more of its other policies,” says Parliament in a resolution, passed last week, on the European Disability Strategy 2010-2020.
“Over 80 million people, i.e. around 16% of the EU’s total population, are living with disabilities. The Europe 2020 Strategy target of 75% of the population aged 20-64 in Europe 2020 in employment cannot be achieved unless it includes people with some form of disability”, said Àdám Kósa ahead of the plenary vote.
The employment rate for people with disabilities is only around 45 % in the EU and this is one of the groups hardest hit by the financial crisis, says the resolution, which was passed by a show of hands.
Austerity measures must not become a pretext for unjustified cuts in services for persons with disabilities or in projects for their social inclusion, MEPs say.
The European Parliament stresses the need to reach a swift agreement on the proposal for a Council directive on implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation. This was approved with 362 votes in favour, 273 against and 23 abstentions.
It also calls on the European Commission to reinforce anti-discrimination and accessibility provisions in the EU’s cohesion policy plans for 2014-2020, public procurement reform proposals and to present a legislative proposal for a European Accessibility Act with strong and binding measures at EU level to improve access to goods and services for people with disabilities.
MEPs call on EU Member States and the European Commission to recognise sign language as an official language in the Member States. The rapporteur himself is deaf and is assisted by an interpreter using sign language during meetings.
Finally, the resolution calls on Member States and the Commission to swiftly ratify and implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). So far, the Convention has been ratified by 17 Member States.

Road Map for European Ageing Research

admin — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 06:34:33 +0000

The FUTURAGE Road Map for European Ageing Research was formally launched yesterday (Tuesday 18th October) at a conference in the European Parliament in Brussels.
FUTURAGE is a two-year project funded by the European Commission, under the Seventh Framework Programme, to create the definitive road map for ageing research in Europe for the next 10-15 years.
Drawing on experts and specialists from Europe and beyond, the road map represents the most extensive consultation ever conducted in this field and identifies the main priorities on ageing and health from a multi-disciplinary perspective.
Through a chain of events, academic and non-academic stakeholders engaged in a state-of-the-art assessment of research priorities, emerging fields and methods to build consensus on the research priorities in ageing until 2025.
The FUTURAGE Road Map for European Ageing Research is now available to download here.

Pre-announcement: Call for the e-inclusion 2012 awards

admin — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:30:45 +0000

The European Commission has established the e-Inclusion Awards to raise awareness, encourage participation and recognise excellence and good practice in using ICT and digital technology to tackle social and digital exclusion across Europe. The scheme ran for the first time in 2008. The 2012 eInclusion awards will underline the work done by intermediaries and encourage the dissemination of good training practices in the special award category “we are the champions”. The other award category is “I am digitally driven” and will highlight the impact of digital skills on life prospects, with special focus on employability, re-skilling, visible improvement in socio economic situation of groups at risk of exclusion). Method of participation to the call will be submission of audiovisual material. Key criteria for selection will be: 1) demonstrated positive impact of the initiatives presented on individuals’ employability and wellbeing; 2) creativity and quality of the material submitted in support of the entry. The story told should inspire and encourage other organisations and individuals to take part in e-inclusion initiatives.
More information.

The European Disability Forum’s toolkit on the Telecoms Package

admin — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:45:38 +0000

EDF has developed a Telecoms Package Toolkit to support the efforts to bring a real change for persons with disabilities to equally access e-communications. This Toolkit lists the provisions related to e-accessibility for persons with disabilities in the EU Regulatory Framework for Electronic Communications Networks and Services (the Telecoms Package) and gives insights on how they could be understood to enable a full and common understanding throughout the EU. This toolkit is primarily targeted at EDF member organizations to enhance their capacity in following up on the transposition into national legislation and the implementation of the Telecoms Package; but, it could also be useful to anyone who wishes to better understand the disability-related provisions in the Telecoms Package. The toolkit is available on alternative format upon demand.
Download the toolkit

2nd open workshop on European Accessibility requirements in public procurement of ICT products and services

admin — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 05:15:29 +0000

CEN, CENELEC and ETSI are organising a 2nd open workshop on “European Accessibility requirements in public procurement of ICT products and services” to be held in Brussels on 28 October 2011. This is the second of a series of three workshops that give stakeholders an opportunity to learn about the work, to discuss the latest drafts of the standards and reports and to give feedback about the work being done.
Participation is free of charge, but registration is required. Palentype and sign language can be made available upon request.
Source: http://www.mandate376.eu/

AEGIS at a glance (presentation at DRT4ALL)

admin — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 02:52:16 +0000

Following English spoken videos provide an extensive overview of the status of the European Assistive Technologies market, aims and objectives of the AEGIS project, and the outcomes as was presented at the DRT4ALL conference on 27/06/2011 in Madrid, Spain, in the dedicated panel on “Technical Aid: Future and Reality”.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Level of accessibility in public websites in comparison with legislative provisions and the deadline for implementation of WCAG 2.0

admin — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 06:44:27 +0000

A benchmarking study has been undertaken to map the level of accessibility in EU public websites in comparison with legislative provisions and the deadline for implementation of WCAG 2.0.

The variables considered in this report are:

Accessibility of public web sites
Internet accessibility policy
Deadline for implementation of WCAG 2.0 in public sector web sites

The underlying hypotheses are:

The higher the level of implementation of Internet accessibility policy, the more positive the situation of accessibility of the public websites is expected to be.
The earlier the deadline for the implementation of WCAG 2.0 in public sector websites, the more positive the situation of accessibility of the public websites is expected to be.

Initial outcomes are available and indicate a positive correlation of Internet accessibility policy versus Accessibility of public web sites.
The situation is however still poor, exceptions being Spain and the UK where the Accessibility of public web sites is higher than 60%. With merely 20%, France rates the poorest.

Mandate 376: second open workshop 28 October

admin — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 02:36:14 +0000

International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs (ICCHP’13)

admin — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 01:28:31 +0000

The 13th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs (ICCHP’13) will take place at the University of Linz, Austria on July 11-13, with a pre-conference on July 9-10.

ICCHP focuses on eInclusion for people with disabilities and older adults enabling a more independent life, participation and inclusion and improved services and support. By its nature, ICCHP has a wide area of topics and a future oriented mission:
* Full and short to be published in Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science
* Special track on Universal Learning Design (ULD), organised by the Support Centre for Students with Special Needs, Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic
* Organise your own Special Thematic Session (STS)
* Workshops, tutorials and seminars
* Meetings, presentations, posters and exhibition
* Young Researchers Consortium (YRC)
* ICCHP Summer University 2012: Math, Science and Statistics for Visually Impaired Users
* Project:Possibility – Programming Competition for eAccessibility Solutions
* The Austrian Computer Society’s ICCHP Roland Wagner Award in the range of 3000€

And much more! Please refer to the below Call for Papers (pdf and rtf version) and visit http://www.icchp.org.

Come and get involved and distribute the call widely!

Contribute to the Gdansk roadmap on digital inclusion

admin — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 15:06:46 +0000

The roadmap is a collaborative text from and for digital Inclusion practitioners across Europe. It aims to gather concrete solutions to common problems; show what eInclusion practitioner are already doing; mobilise support and tools from relevant decision makers and sectors. It is planned that the contributors with the most concrete inputs will be invited to present the most important issues from the Roadmap to Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission responsible for the digital agenda. The Roadmap will be discussed and adopted by the delegates of the Gdansk conference on Innovation for Digital Inclusion, 5-7 October 2011 (you can still register to the conference!).
The draft roadmap is expecting contributions before Wednesday September 28, 2011.
The roadmap draws on stakeholder expertise and is interested also in your contribution. Below you will find the federated collaborative approach to policy consultation.

Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability

admin — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 05:11:40 +0000

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) established a Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability.
Users of telecommunications and information technology have a varied capability of handling information and the controls of their presentation. The source of this variation lies in cultural and educational backgrounds, as well as on age-related functional limitations, in disabilities, and in other natural causes.
The Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability will facilitate interaction between relevant bodies, and ensure that ICT accessibility is included in the key debates around Internet Governance in order to build a future where all sectors of the global community have equal access to the Information Society. We are convinced that the entire community can benefit from an “accessible ICT world,” as people can be permanently or temporarily disabled due to personal, environmental (e.g., a phone call in a noisy environment) or cultural (e.g., spoken language diversity) conditions. Moreover, we will all grow old and lose abilities that we take for granted now, thus enlarging the part of the population that would benefit from accessible communication. We cannot allow isolation of a part of the population due to lack of appropriate functionality that prevents the use of ICT resources by everybody to the fullest possible degree.
The coalition is open to any organization entity or individual working on the field, including Standard Developing Organizations (SDOs), and i coordinated by Andrea Saks (TDI Telecommunications for the Deaf Inc.)

Official Web site: Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability

IMPACT in Europe project – Connect, Personalise, Care: Person Centred Technology for Greater Quality of Life

admin — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 12:16:09 +0000

This European Conference on 9-10 November 2011 is organised in the framework of the project ImPaCT in Europe—Improving Person Centred Technology in Europe, funded by the Lifelong Learning Programme of DG Education and Culture.
The conference programme has been designed to deliver an exciting agenda bringing together key people from across Europe to demonstrate how assistive technology can significantly support independence for people with disabilities in a person centred way.
Key speakers hail from all relevant stakeholder groups to debate the issue from all perspectives and to reach a consensus on how to bring the PCT agenda forward.
Key topics that will be debated include Ethics in PCT service delivery, Training needs for care staff, Areas of PCT use and related challenges, and PCT in education and at work.

Conference venue:
Hotel Crowne Plaza
Rue de la loi 107 Wetstraat
1040 Brussels

Registration details: on www.impact-in-europe.eu and www.easpd.eu.

Urbaccess – Paris, France, January 2012

admin — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 12:01:01 +0000

The Urbaccess conference on assistive technologies, accessible transport, mobility and urban environment takes place in Paris, France on 19-20 January 2012.
More information at the event website.

XIII International Training Course in Disability and Development

admin — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 05:11:17 +0000

8th September – 15th September 2011
Objectives of the Training
The eight day intensive exercise is intended for Programme Managers of organisations and projects involved in development and disability work. The course is designed to equip the participants with appropriate attitudes, necessary knowledge and basic skills to initiate, monitor, develop and strengthen disability and development programmes apart from facilitating information exchange among participants. The participants will also be oriented towards Information Dissemination, Networking and Advocacy related to disability, development and CBR.

Participants
The workshop is targeted at middle and senior level professionals from the Government, NGOs, International NGOs and individuals interested in disability work. As the medium of instruction is English, fluency in reading, writing and speaking English is a necessary pre-requisite. The number of participants will be restricted to 25.

Faculty
Faculty comprises a team of distinguished professionals, practitioners, disabled activists and management experts

Curriculum
- Addressing social barriers: Analysis of Attitudes, Myths and Misconceptions and their impact on People with Disabilities.
- Basic Concepts, Perspectives and Approaches of disability and inclusive development
- Poverty – Disability & Development: Analysis of cause effective relation each other
- Inclusive education & Livelihoods
- Disability and issues of multiple Marginalization (Specific reference to Women with Disability)
- Disaster and Disability: introduction to disabled friendly and inclusive strategies in conflict and emergencies
- International and National policy framework
- CBR and inclusive Development, an approach to empowerment of persons with disabilities
- Participatory approaches in planning, implementation, monitoring, reviewing and evaluation

Pedagogy
The course will emphasize the use of participatory learning approaches and will have a fieldwork component. Lectures, group discussions, case studies and work analysis will form an essential component of the programme.

Course Fee
Foreign participant – $ 500
The fee covers simple food and twin shared accommodation. It also includes reading materials, training materials, local conveyance during field visits and certification.

Venue
The workshop is residential and all participants are expected to stay at the premises, where arrangements for lodging (on twin sharing basis) and boarding exist. Address of the venue will be sent to the confirmed participants.

Schedule
The workshop will commence on the 8th f September 2011. Participants are expected to reach the venue latest by 7th evening and can plan their departure on the evening of the 15th (after 6pm) or latest by the morning of the 16th. For extra days of stay, participants will need to obtain prior permission, and make payments independently. The training programme is scheduled at Bangalore. Training also includes fieldwork for 3 days with select NGOs in and around Bangalore.

The last date for receiving duly filled applications is 22nd July 2011.

For application and other details contact :

The Training Co-ordinator,
Actionaid,
No. 139, Richmond Road,
Bangalore – 560 025, India
Tel: 0091-80-43650650/647
Fax: 0091-80-25586284
Email: raghavendra.b@actionaid.org

About Actionaid
ActionAid is an international anti-poverty agency whose aim is to fight poverty worldwide. Formed in 1972, for over 30 years we have been growing and expanding to where we are today – helping over 13 million of the world’s poorest and most disadvantaged people in 42 countries worldwide. We work with local partners to fight poverty and injustice worldwide, reaching over 13 million of the poorest and most vulnerable people over the last year alone, helping them fight for and gain their rights to food, shelter, work, education, healthcare and a voice in the decisions that affect their lives.
In India today we work with more than 300 civil society organisations and over 12 million poor and excluded people in 25 states and two union territories. Our focus is on the rights of India’s most marginalised communities: Dalit and indigenous people, rural and urban poor, women, children and minorities. These groups face an acute lack of access to and control over resources, services, and institutions. We pay special attention to those in vulnerable situations such as people living with chronic hunger, HIV/AIDS or disability, migrant and bonded workers, children who are out of school, city-dwellers without a home, and people whose land or livelihood is under threat. We also work with women, men, girls and boys who have been trafficked, displaced, or hit by natural and human-made disasters.
People with Disabilities constitute one of our core constituencies. We believe in a twin-track approach which requires us to promote both disability specific and inclusive development initiatives towards the empowerment of People with Disabilities. We work on the premise that disability is a human rights and development issue that demands the state and civil society to provide adequate and appropriate space for people with disabilities.

Survey – Barriers that prevent inclusive education implementation in European countries

admin — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 08:55:46 +0000

Ms. Evmorfia Gamoulou (a Greek post-graduate student) is conducting a research about the barriers that prevent inclusive education implementation in European countries.
Her survey is directed towards European school social workers and school psychologists who work closely with students with special educational needs.
The aim of her research is to uncover the inclusive practices that are implemented in European countries but also to identify the parameters of social inclusion that take place in mainstream schools.
The survey exists in Dutch, French, Greek and English.
The questionnaires should be completed until 25th of June 2011 and can be sent to morfoula1981@hotmail.com. All provided information will be kept anonymously and confidential.

First WHO World Report on Disability to be released June 9, 2011

admin — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 04:04:11 +0000

Produced jointly by the World Health Organization and the World Bank, this publication reviews evidence about the global situation of persons with disabilities, and offers directions for policy and practice to address exclusion. The report will be launched at UN Headquarters on 9 June 2011. In anticipation of the report, WHO will launch a series of promotional videos on the theme “What is Disability to Me?” which can be viewed on YouTube.
The Report explores current evidence about disability, identifies needs, and highlights what works to improve the lives of people with disabilities in areas including health, rehabilitation, support, environments, education and employment. We want to hear from people with disabilities about what can be done to overcome barriers to participation in their communities.
Please note: most film have captions in many languages.

The videos can be found in our YouTube channel.

Accessibility, an ongoing struggle in every domain of daily life

admin — Tue, 10 May 2011 19:09:01 +0000

Following presentation “Accessibility, an ongoing struggle in every domain of daily life” was given at the ATTRACT workshop in Madrid, Spain on 10 May 2011.