Access For All

A workshop on cognitive support technology for older people will be organised at Goldsmiths, University of London on 19th May 2010. This workshop is jointly organised by the Vital Mind and Hermes FP7 projects.
In this one-day workshop, the state of the art in cognitive support technology for older people will be explored. It will discuss how technology can help the elderly to preserve their quality of life, describing work which several research groups have done and are doing in the area of cognitive training and assisting technologies and outlining some of the challenges that lie ahead. The goal is to share best practice and to generate new conceptual frameworks for how to advance, promote and spread assisting technology research for older people.
The topics that will be covered are:
- Universal access and assistive technology
- Inclusive design for older people
- Benefits of cognitive training systems in older adults
- Drivers and barriers to the adoption of ICT by older people
- Exploitation of cognitive support technology for older people

The Vital Mind project use cognitive psychology, the television medium and advance interactive ICT to enable older adults to actively and autonomously participate in mind fitness activities while sitting in front of their TV set. The project supports the design of iTV-based applications to enhance cognitive training as well as develop innovative input devices, including non-verbal vocal interaction, gestural and pointing inputs. Delivery of the applications via USB Flash disk will be promoted in addition to broadcasting.
HERMES aims at reducing the negative effects of cognitive decline by supporting prospective and episodic memory in situations where a user feels at a loss. An accessible home-based and mobile device offer advanced calendaring functionality and sophisticated access to past events based on intelligent audio and visual processing and reasoning.

Who should attend?
Healthcare professionals; older people associations; service providers, ISPs and Telco manufacturers; researchers in the field of ICT and ageing; other projects in eInclusion, AAL and ICT PSP projects partners.

There is no registration fee for the workshop.
To register please contact:
Andrea Miotto
E: a.miotto@gold.ac.uk
T: +44 (0) 20 7078 5409
Arjan Geven
E: geven@cure.at
T: +43 1 743 54 51 14

The 12th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility takes place on October 25 – 27, 2010 in Orlando, Florida, USA.
The ASSETS conference explores the use of computing and information technologies to help persons with disabilities and older adults. ASSETS is the premier forum for presenting innovative research on the design and use of both mainstream and specialized assistive technologies. This includes the use of technology by and in support of:
- individuals with hearing, sight and other sensory impairments
- individuals with motor impairments
- individuals with memory, learning and cognitive impairments
- individuals with multiple impairments
- older adults
- professionals who work with these populations
All contributions are peer-reviewed by an international Program Committee. Accepted papers, posters and demonstrations will be archived in the ACM digital library. Select authors will be invited to submit extended versions to a special issue of the ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS).
More information on the event website.

i-CREATe 2010 4th premier convention will be held in Shanghai, China on 21-23 July 2010. The convention is dedicated to promote assistive technologies to improve the lives of the elderly and people with disabilities and provide a platform to address current and future development in these areas. The highlights of i-CREATe 2010 are “Travel, Employment, Education, Leisure and Sports”, all aiming to integrate people with special needs into the society. In this premier event, you will meet leaders from various fields of assistive technology, service delivery, R & D funding agencies and policymakers, researchers, therapists, practitioners and more.
More information at the conference website.

AbleNet announces the launch of the 2010 ‘Remarkable Idea’ program in celebration of its 25th anniversary. Throughout the year the company is requesting worldwide submissions of innovative applications of assistive technology (AT) and special education tools from educators, parents, users, therapists and other professionals.
More information on their website.

Some interesting reading:

Assistive technology: from virtuality to reality: AAATE 2005, by Alain Pruski, Harry Knops.