Access For All

The first ever World report on disability, produced jointly by WHO and the World Bank, suggests that more than a billion people in the world today experience disability.
People with disabilities have generally poorer health, lower education achievements, fewer economic opportunities and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities. This is largely due to the lack of services available to them and the many obstacles they face in their everyday lives. The report provides the best available evidence about what works to overcome barriers to health care, rehabilitation, education, employment, and support services, and to create the environments which will enable people with disabilities to flourish. The report ends with a concrete set of recommended actions for governments and their partners.
This pioneering World report on disability will make a significant contribution to implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. At the intersection of public health, human rights and development, the report is set to become a “must have” resource for policy-makers, service providers, professionals, and advocates for people with disabilities and their families.

14 June 2011 – Brussels – In the week of the first EU Digital Assembly in Brussels, Vodafone Foundation launched the Smart Accessibility Awards. This is a new competition to promote the development of IT applications designed to improve the lives of people with disabilities and older people to help them become more actively involved in society.
The programme is supported and co-organized by AGE Platform Europe, the European network of around 160 organisations of and for people aged 50+, and the European Disability Forum (EDF), the NGO that represents the interests of 80 million Europeans with disabilities.
Launched in Brussels, the competition will award the best smartphone application across four different categories as follows:

• Social participation: This refers to applications which help users to participate actively in today’s society and benefit from the facilities that the new technologies can offer, whatever their age, disability and/or capacity (E.g. use the web and social media through mobile devices, contact people using mobile devices to the same extent as everyone, etc).
• Independent living: This refers to applications which help users to be more autonomous and perform daily tasks independently (E.g. using domestic appliances such as washing machine or refrigerator, opening doors safely, etc).
• Mobility: This refers to applications which enable users to move around more freely and safely using the whole range of transport modes. It can also refer to the use of mobile devices to be guided in unknown environment (e.g. using GPS option, etc).
• Wellbeing: This refers to applications which improve the users’ health and as well as overall feeling of wellbeing.

The competition is open from 14 June 2011 to 15 October 2011. All qualifying entries will be evaluated in November by a jury, consisting of representatives from AGE Platform Europe, European Disability Forum and Vodafone Foundation. Twelve finalists will be selected and requested to present their application before the final jury in Brussels in early December 2011 at a live final, where the four overall winners will be chosen. The total prize fund of the €200k will be split equally between the four winners.
Vodafone Foundation Director, Andrew Dunnett said “The Vodafone Foundation is keen to help as many people as possible benefit from new technologies. The Smart Accessibility Awards will help developers create apps that can really make a difference to people’s lives – we are thrilled to be able to support such an important initiative.”
Anne-Sophie Parent, AGE Platform Europe Secretary General, said “We are pleased to be involved in a project that supports our efforts towards building a more inclusive society. Digital inclusion is key to ensuring as many people as possible remain actively involved in their communities and we should make sure every citizen is empowered to do so, whatever their age or capacities. We hope this competition will help reach that goal and also contribute to the ‘European Year 2012 for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations’ where the objective is to increase older people’s active participation in society and promote independent living in old age. ”
Rodolfo Cattani, EDF Executive Member, said; “Being part of this competition is very important for us. Communication technologies are vital to making possible the inclusion of persons with disabilities. When the mobile applications are not accessible, it can create new obstacles and can lead to new forms of discrimination. We look forward to seeing accessible apps.”
For more information on the contest and submit your entry: http://developer.vodafone.com/smartaccess2011/+

The ViPi team would like to announce the release of the ViPi user requirement survey. The survey aims to assess:

• the needs of the potential ViPi community;
• the requirements for ICT training;
• what training material is currently available;
• which teaching approaches and methodologies are employed/most successful.

The survey is tailored to people with disabilities and organisations representing them, relatives, carers and trainers of people with disabilities, and also people dealing with the employment of and policy regarding people with disabilities.

While there are a high number of total questions, it will guide you to those parts of the survey which are relevant to you. The survey length varies dependent on your particular interest in the ViPi project, but should not take more than 15 minutes to complete. All personal questions are optional.

The outcomes of this survey will guide the focus of future ViPi project developments, and hence it is a very important part of the project. It is also your opportunity to express your opinions on ICT training for people with disabilities. Please spare the time to complete the survey, and guide ViPi in the direction that will benefit all stakeholders best.

The survey can be found here:

• English
• Dutch
• Greek
• Lithuanian

Many thanks in advance,
The ViPi team.

About ViPi:

ViPi (Virtual portal for ImpaiRed Groups Interaction) 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.

Mobile Accessibility Workshop will be held at INTERACT 2011, in Lisbon, Portugal, on 5-9 September 2011.
Mobile devices pervade our daily lives. We are on the cusp of a fundamental change in how we relate to information and others, accessible at all times and places. Alas, this change might be barred to a large number of people, suffering from a wide range of disabilities. Mobile devices are increasingly visual, making them hard to use by the blind or other vision-impaired people. Keyboards are steadily being replaced by touchscreens, without tactile feedback, introducing additional barriers. Tetraplegic users have limited mobility of their limbs and hardly are able to pick up the devices or use their fingers for precise pointing. Moreover, the mobile aspect often creates situational impairments where those interaction modes are cumbersome or socially unacceptable, even for non-impaired people.
These are problems studied by the nascent area of Mobile Accessibility, where researchers focus on solving accessibility problems in mobile devices and settings. Bringing together Mobile Computing and Accessibility, it is the source of synergistic works that have the potential of deeply transforming how we look at mobile devices, and to shape the ongoing mobile revolution. This workshop will bring together researchers and practitioners in the area.
The topics of the workshop include but are not limited to:

• Mobile interaction accessibility
• Situational impairments
• Assistive Mobile Technologies
• Mobile Web Accessibility

More information can be found at the conference website.

Research In Motion, along with RNIB, are going to be hosting a usability study of mobile phone screen reader software in London at the RNIB Judd Street location on June 13 – 15. Do you know of any iPhone VoiceOver users you think might be interested in participating in such a study? If so, please pass this information along to them.
Here is a summary of the event:

• Usability study of screen readers on mobile phones;
• Specific focus of this study is VoiceOver on iPhone;
• Being held on June 13 – 15 at various times at the RNIB Judd Street location;
• Participants need to be VoiceOver users on their own iPhone.

Interested parties should email accessibility@rim.com or Sai Prapagharan.

The Call for Papers for RAatE 2011 (Recent Advances in Assistive Technology & Engineering) is now open. You are invited to submit papers, case studies or posters on a range of topics, including:

• Services – Aspects of Service Delivery
• Developments & Challenges in Wheelchair Services
• New Service Demands: Commissioning of Re-ablement & AT Services
• Emerging Technologies & Recent Advances in AT
• Case Studies of Innovative AT in Practice

In addition to research papers or new innovations this year RAatE welcomes offers of presentations on how specialist aspects of assistive technology are delivered within services. With an ever expanding range of technology, how do services meet the increasing needs and expectations of their client groups? In particular RAatE welcomes hearing how services provide specialist aspects of assistive technology such as specialist wheelchair controls, integrated access, communication requirements or environmental controls. Challenges and solutions that have worked locally can be presented in the form of case studies or group presentations.
The deadline for the call for papers is 8th July 2011 and submissions can be made via the RAatE website.
RAatE 2011 is being held on Monday 28th November 2011 at the University of Warwick conference centre, and is the only UK conference focused on the latest innovations and developments in assistive technology. This conference will be of interest to everyone who uses, works with, develops or conducts research on assistive technologies.