Access For All

The study on eAccessibility2020 (“Study on Implications from Future ICT Trends on Assistive Technology and Accessibility”, SMART 2010/0077) aims to provide the EC with recommendations on future research policy, especially regarding FP8 (ICT & FET) and the next Competitiveness & Innovation Programme (CIP).
Also, the study will make suggestions on relevant standardisation issues and on EC policy activities for the wider mainstreaming and adoption of eAccessibility. To do so the study team will elaborate and validate specific use and technology-scenarios for 2020. These scenarios will result from vigorous interaction with eAccessibility-related stakeholders and experts, which will involve among other the identification and assessment of ‘Drivers of Change’ affecting the course of eAccessibility (i.e. key-trends, micro-trends and weak-signals).
The study approach adopts a variety of methodologies, tools and activities and it is presented at www.e-accessibility2020.eu together with news, e-surveys and eventually the study results.
All interested individuals or organisations are invited to register in the study’s website so as to stay informed and/or participate in the study activities.
The study is conducted for the European Commission, DG Information Society & Media, Unit ‘ICT for Inclusion’.

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.

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.

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.

Registration is open for the International Course on Disability & Development to be held at the VU University Amsterdam on Nov. 28- Dec. 23, 2011. Topics covered include: disability models and stereotypes, International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) conceptual framework, rights of people with disabilities, including the CRPD, and disability-relevant research methods, including survey methods.
Click here for further information.

The Kessler Foundation and the National Organization on Disabilities commissioned Harris Interactive to conduct the 2010 Survey of Americans with Disabilities. Among the findings they identified that employment represents the largest gap between the two groups. Of all working-age people with disabilities, only 21% say that they are employed, compared to 59% of people without disabilities – a gap of 38 percentage points. People with disabilities are still much more likely to be living in poverty. People with disabilities are less likely than those without disabilities to socialize with friends, relatives or neighbors, once again suggesting that there are significant barriers to participation in leisure activities for this population. The second-largest gap between people with and without disabilities is regarding Internet access. 85% of adults without disabilities access the Internet, whereas only 54% of adults with disabilities report the same – a gap of 31 percentage points.
Source: Kessler Foundation