Access For All » KA 3

Launch of ViPi, a Virtual portal for ImpaiRed Groups Interaction

admin — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 11:01:35 +0000

Logo of ViPi project

PhoenixKM (Belgium) coordinates the ViPi project that aims to provide a “one-stop-shop” interactive portal & learning environment, targeted towards trainers and trainees, with particular attention towards people with disabilities. The project partnership brings together organizations and companies from Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, UK and Lithuania.
BELGIUM, BRUSSELS – 26 January 2011 – An estimated 45 million people in Europe have a long-standing health problem or disability (LSHPD), being 16% of men and women aged 16-64 in the EU as a whole (2002 EU Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the 2004 EU Statistics on Incomes and Living Conditions).
33% of the people with LSHPD are not restricted in the kind or amount of work they could do or their mobility to and from work. Figures vary largely across EU members (10-50%).
This difference is directly linked to the level of prosperity and the assistance available. Of those that are considerably restricted in their ability to work, 28% were in employment, while for those that are not restricted in their ability to work, this is estimated at 68%.
Today the fast development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) provides alternative and creative solutions for the employment of people with disabilities. Recent studies conducted by various projects such as ACCESSIBLE and AEGIS have highlighted that people with disabilities (PwD) can benefit enormously from digital competences which are core life and employability skills (see Lisbon Objectives). However, same and other studies revealed also that the main barrier is the lack of specific training support or material. In addition to that, a number of other skills such as literacy and numeracy skills equally form a potential barrier towards employment of PwD.
ViPi project envisages fulfilling the gap of accessible and flexible training, designed to meet the specific needs of people with disabilities, as well as the trainers themselves.
ViPi project will develop an interactive online platform where people with disabilities can access a wide variety of ICT training courses and serious games for acquiring ICT skills, while trainers will be able to upload and download specific learning objects, using a semantically enriched environment to improve the searchability, thus increasing the relevance of the results obtained.
ViPi platform will comprise a virtual collaborative learning environment for people with disabilities and their trainers to interact, providing a vast repository of learning objects (LOs) that focus on basic ICT literacy. This will allow people with disabilities to grasp these core skills and become able to enter or sustain their employment in the regular labour market. The platform will be enriched with intuitive and accessible mobile and Internet/PC based educational/serious games. Additionally, also a mobile Android based social application linked with ViPi platform will be deployed.
Furthermore, ViPi will also develop a customized and localized curriculum on ICT skills and training, with various additional training materials (different formats), and a trainer handbook. All project outcomes will initially be available in Dutch, English, Greek and Lithuanian languages.
The Project partnership consists of Steficon (Greece), Hypertech (Greece), Hiteco (Lithuania), Nottingham Trent University (the UK), and EuroCy Innovations Ltd. (Cyprus), while the Project Coordinator is PhoenixKM (Belgium). More information can be found on www.ViPi-project.eu and twitter.com/ViPi_project.
The ViPi KA3 LLL project has been partially funded under the Lifelong Learning program, subprogramme KA3 ICT.

ViPi– Virtual portal for ImpaiRed Groups Interaction

admin — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:29:28 +0000

On 1st of January 2011, the project ViPi (Virtual portal for ImpaiRed Groups Interaction) was launched.
ViPi aims to provide a “one-stop-shop” interactive portal & learning environment that delivers:

a comprehensive multilingual portal, with;
an embedded multilingual social community (for VET centres, PwD, ICT training centres, etc.), using the latest social media, facilitating interactive information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration, with access to all;
an accessible (WCAG 2.0) multilingual Web 2.0 enabled online ICT for learning environment to PwD, their trainers, with an interactive and vast repository of interoperable SCORM compliant learning objects (LOs) that focus on basic ICT literacy to allow PwD to grasp this core skill in order to be able to enter or sustain their employment in the regular labour market, enriched with intuitive mobile Java and Flash Lite based mobile and internet/PC based educational/serious games;
The final outcome will be an entire set of applications and services that will be streamlined via a blended educational and pedagogical framework, making full usage of the interaction possibilities offered by web 2.0, and localised, tested, piloted and subsequently fine-tuned with GR, BE, LT, UK and CY end-user communities.

The platform will equally act as a “one-stop-shop” for trainer organizations to find and contribute LOs that they can integrate in existing learning environments and practices. Using Open Source Software, ViPi platform extensions can be easily integrated.
ViPi platform will thus be able to support a fully accessible and Open Source based pan-European learning network and community, bringing together key stakeholders and gatekeepers (VET, target groups, umbrella organizations), while offering a vast set of reusable (PC and Mobile) LOs, supported by Web 2.0 social services.

The ViPi KA3 LLL project (511792-LLP-1-2010-1-GR-KA3-KA3NW) has been partially funded under the Lifelong Learning program, subprogramme KA3 ICT.

RECALL: Location Based Services – Reconnecting Excluded Communities and Lifelong Learning

admin — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:38:29 +0000

RECALL logo

RECALL (Location Based Services – Reconnecting Excluded Communities and Lifelong Learning) KA3 project has been developed to meet a need identified from years of research in working with user groups of people with learning disabilities and their teachers/trainers. This research has shown that on leaving compulsory education, people with learning disabilities, who have previously been provided with transport to allow them to access community activity, suddenly become excluded from lifelong learning and community activity because of their lack of independent travel skills.
Three modes of RECALL will be implemented and tested which allows our target audience to plan, rehearse and then actually reconnect with learning, employment and other community opportunities. This approach combines location based services with games based learning approaches. The Plan mode promotes User Created Content and allows RECALL to be personalised to users’ needs. The Challenge mode uses games based learning approaches and context awareness to engage users in rehearsing, reflecting on and reinforcing the ways in which they have planned their reconnection with these opportunities. The Usage mode also offers self directed learning opportunities by specifying and personalising the key community and road safety messages that they require to be triggered by location. RECALL is an application developed for the Android Operating System and will be specified in English, Bulgarian, Greek and Romanian.
In the UK and Greece RECALL will work with end user groups of people with learning disabilities (NTU, GHI) and with Deaf people (BID). In Romania it will work with people with physical disabilities and sensory impairments and in Bulgaria RECALL will involve mainly people with mobility impairments. Testing and piloting of the products will measure performance against agreed indicators to ensure that we meet the objectives of increasing independence and inclusion for the target groups and of reconnecting excluded learners back to their communities and lifelong learning opportunities.
More info on the project website.

Survey on the use of Person Centred Technology

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:22:54 +0000

The Project ImPaCT in Europe – Improving Person Centred Technology in Europe, a networking project in the field of ICT co-financed by the European Commission’s Executive Agency for Education, Audiovisual and Culture in the framework of the Lifelong Learning Programme, is conducting a survey to assess the use of Person Centred Technology across Europe. The data gathered will be used by the partnership to map the current situation and to to evaluate and promote the benefits of PCT for people with disabilities. The survey is brief and user friendly and is available in English, Portuguese, Finnish, French and Dutch. People with disabilities, service providers, policy makers at all levels, researchers and manufacturers of PCT who are interested in the work carried out by the partnership are invited to contribute.

Project ImPaCT in Europe Improving Person Centred Technology in Europe – Questionnaire to assess the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Electronic Assistive Technology (EAT)

admin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:21:11 +0000

In order to assess the use of Person Centred Technology (PCT) which includes all ICT and EAT devices, the ImPaCT project launched an online survey (http://easpd.hft.org.uk/). The gathered information will then be used by the ImPaCT in Europe project team to evaluate and promote the benefits of PCT for people with disabilities.

Completing the questionnaire should not take too long, and your inputs will be invaluable!
In case of questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Miriana Giraldi.